Cuisine

Chettinad is famous for its delicious foods. That is how people get to know Chettinad. Chettinad food is less spicy, less oily and harmless to the stomach. Minimum quantity of oil, spice, tamarind and coconut is used in the real Chettinad food. But the food served in restaurants now is vice versa. With a standard full meal or in marriage lunch boiled rice, cooked dhal, drumstick sambar, ghee for flavouring rice, kootu, poriyal, masiyal, pachchadi, masala, kara kuzhambu, thaneer kuzhambu, soup, curd, appalam, variety of pickles, and desserts like payasam and Ice cream are served. The “kara kozhambu” or ?Pakkoda Kuzhambu?is widely regarded as the best tasting Chettinad Side Dish.
The word Chettinad, reminds the numerous mouth watering delicacies that have transcended the boundaries of Tamil Nadu to carve a worldwide following. Generally less garnished with spices, the typical menu resembles the aristocratic way of life of the Chettinad people.
As Chettiars had business contacts throughout the world from time immemorial their cuisine is famous for its use of a variety of spices used in preparing mainly non-vegetarian food. The dishes are hot and spicy with fresh ground masalas. They also make a lot of sun dried salted vegetables called vatthals, during the season and use them in the off season, reflecting the dry environment of the region and economic nature. The meat is restricted ot fish, prawn, lobster, crab, chicken and mutton. Chettiars do not eat beef and pork. Most of the dishes are eaten with rice and rice based accompaniments such as idlis, dosais, appams, idiyappams and adais. The Chettinad people through their mercantile contacts with Burma, learnt to prepare a type of rice pudding made with sticky red rice calles the “Kavanarisi”.
Breakfast or tiffin includes idly(steamed rice cakes), dosai (a pancake made from a batter of rice) and lentils crisp fried on a pan, vada (deep fried doughnuts made from a batter of lentils), pongal ( a mish mash of rice and lentils boiled together and seasoned with ghee, cashew nuts, pepper and cummin seed), uppuma (cooked semolina seasoned in oil with mustard, pepper, cummin seed and dry lentils.)
There are several variations of the dishes mentioned above which are eaten with coconut chutney, sambar (seasoned lentil broth) and mulaga podi (a powdered mix of several dried lentils eaten with oil). Lunch or meals consists of cooked rice served with an array of vegetable dishes, sambar, chutneys, rasam ( a hot broth made with tamarind juice and pepper) and curd(yogurt). For a non-vegetarian lunch, curries or dishes cooked with mutton, chicken or fish is included. The meals is incomplete without crisp papads or appalam.
Chettinad cuisine offers a variety of vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes. Some of the popular vegetarian dishes include idiyappam, paniyaram, vellai paniyaram, karuppatti paniyaram, paal paniyaram, kuzhi paniyaram, kozhakattai, masala paniyaram, adikoozh, kandharappam, seeyam, masala seeyam, kavuni arisi & athirasam.
Spices used
In Chettinad food, the most important spices are marathi mokku (dried flower pods), anasipoo (star aniseed) and kalpasi (dried bark). In addition, tamarind, whole red chillies and saunf (Fennel seeds) are also used along with cinnamon, cloves, bay leaf, peppercorn, cumin seeds and fenugreek.