FOOD CULTURE OF TAMILNADU

"ONE CANNOT THINK WELL, LOVE WELL, SLEEP WELL, IF ONE HAS NOT DINED WELL"

FULL MEALS

One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating.

                                            The food we eat has a direct impact on our ability to enjoy the life to its fullest.The main motto and positive effect of food is the pleasure we get while eating a good and tasty meal. In this, Indians are blessed with varieties of cuisines. Tamil Nadu is one among that which has a great tradition and culture of its food history.

Tamil Nadu cuisine is different from rest of the world's, not only in taste, also in the cooking methods.It has a perfect blend and mixture of different variety of spices. Their culture says serving food to others is a service to the human community. Their cuisine consists of both veg and non-veg recipes. In olden days they used mud and copper utensils to cook and serve. They used to eat their food by sitting on the floor and uses only right hand to eat. Traditionally the food is served on plantain leaves. When hot food is served on this leaves the food is enriched with a unique flavour  of the leaf and of course some health benefits too. After finishing the meal that leaves would become food for cattle and goats. Trending culture brought the usage of stainless steel utensils for cooking and serving. 

Tamil Nadu is also recognized for its varied range of spices which are also exported in different nations. Chilly, Tamarind, Cardamom, Coriander, Pepper, Curry Leaves, Cloves, and Mint are some important spices that are produced in this state. These spices are the secret behind the incredible aroma and scrumptious taste of local dishes of this state. Along with the main course, the snacks and side dishes in Tamil Nadu too proffer an astringent. Three meals a day can be categorized  as tiffin( a light food for both breakfast and dinner) and meals for lunch. They also use varieties of cereals,pulses and millet in their cuisines. Seasonal fruits  and vegetables accommodate their plates in their daily meals. Chicken and Goat meats are predominantly consumed meats in Tamil Nadu. The other non-veg they prepare are sea foods such as fish, crab, prawn and oysters.

TIFFIN RECIPES

The tiffin consists of one of these cuisines like, Idli, Dosai, Idiyappam, Uppuma, Ven pongal, Chappati, Poori along with chutney and sambhar. Traditionally they used to have Pazhaya kanji( night left over steamed rice in water) along with onion and green chillies or thuvaiyal( paste like chutney made out of fried dal, tamarind, red chilly and salt) or left over stews. Ragi koozh( ragi porridge), Kambu koozh( kambu porridge) are other break fast varieties taken mostly by the village people. For dinner mostly the left overs of morning tiffin items and afternoon lunch items. Idli is said to be one of the nutritious and healthy food by many health organisations internationally.



For lunch the meal consists of Steamed rice( since Rice being the staple food of Tamil Nadu)accompanied by steamed/sauteed seasonal vegetables(kootu/poriyal) and stews          

(kuzhambu). The most popular stews being Sambhar made using lentil and vegetables, Puli kuzhambu made out of tamarind juice along with vegaetables and Rasam, a tamarind soup like stew. The meal typically ends with curd rice and pickle.

The method of food intake is also different for them. First they start with rice and sambar, followed by rasam and finally curd rice with pickle( mostly lemon or mango). No meal is ever complete in South Indian homes without curd rice and pickle which is recommended as an invalid diet. After meal they have sweet( for digestion). The sweet mostly would be payasam(sweet made out of moong dal and jaggery), which nowadays replaced by shop bought sweets.

REGIONAL FLAVOURS:

Different regions of Tamil Nadu has their specific and unique style of cooking. Each region has different varieties of crops cultivation according to their soil and water resources. So the cereals and millet used for food preparations varies according to their regional crop cultivation. 

The cooking style differs for each region in Tamil Nadu. It can be widely classified as 

1. Chettinadu samayal

2. Kongu samayal

3. Nanjil Nadu samayal

4. Madras samayal

5. Southern districts cooking

CHETTINADU SAMAYAL: 

Tamil Nadu's Chettinad samayal( cooking) has a great impact on people all over the world who drools for Indian recipes especially Tamil Nadu recipes. Chettinad cuisine is the cuisine of a community called the Nattukotai Chettiars or Nagarathars as they call themselves from the Karaikudi region of  Tamil Nadu. Theirs is one of the well known cuisine of Tamil Nadu. The speciality of their cooking is that they use variety of spices and fresh ground masalas( spice mix).Since their region is too hot they have the habit of storing vegetables and meat by sun dried. They  preserve and use that dried items throughout the year. It can be used by soaking in hot water or by frying in oil. 

The Chettinad people( the Chettiyar community) were traditionally vegetarians. Their main occupation was trading. They had centuries old tradition with many countries, which created an influence over non-veg food. While travelling to Myanmar, Arab countries, Indonesia and Srilanka, they got to trade with spice items available there. This made them to use more spices in their food. The main spices they use in their dishes are red chillies, black pepper, nutmeg, fennel seeds, cinnamon, cloves, cumin seeds and coriander seeds.  These spices give nice aroma and flavour to the recipes, which kindles our taste buds for sure. 

The main ingredient is rice and rice in other forms such as appam, dosai, idiyappam, kozhukattai, idli, paniyaram, etc. Though non-veg is being in practice, the functions are celebrated with only traditional vegetarian food.

Their main non-veg special is tenderly cooked Chettinad Mutton kuzhambu.

KONGU SAMAYAL: 

The Kongu Nadu is the western part of Tamil Nadu which consists the districts of Coimbatore, Tirupur, Salem, Nilgiri, Namakkal, Krishnagiri and Dindigul. Kongunadu  cuisine  differs from rest of the Tamilnadu. They use coconut oil and coconut in most dishes. The region is the highest producer in Gingely oil, Coconut oil and Turmeric, which reflects in their cuisine. Tamil people use Gingely oil for pickles. Since this region is a great producer of oils, they prepare many varieties of pickles. Kongunadu cuisine does not involve marination of any raw material and as a result the food has an unique taste and texture. Turmeric is an important ingredient in the cuisine. Turmeric is added into curries which gives the product a deep yellow colour and nice aroma. The cuisine includes cereals like Jowar (cholam), Bajra (kambu), Ragi(kezhvaragu), and different kinds of pulses and sesame seeds. 

The special recipes of Kongunadu cuisine are Sandhavai ( rice noodles), Oputtu ( sweet that is dry outside with a sweet stuffing), kola urundai (meatballs), Thengai Paal (sweet hot milk made of jaggery, coconut and cotton seeds), Ulundu Kali (Sweet made out of Jaggery and Black Gram), Kachayam (sweet made out of jaggery and rice), Arisimparupu sadam, Puttu,  Paniyaram and  Parota made with maida or all-purpose flour. Arisimparupu sadam is unique to the region and frequently made in homes.

NANJIL NADU SAMAYAL: 

Nanjil Nadu, the Kanyakumari district is the southern most part of Tamil Nadu. In Kanyakumari, much of what is prepared is done so with a generous use of spices and an essential garnish of coconut. Coconut is seemed to be every where from the palm grooves to the kitchen baskets of all the houses in this region. The two flavours of coconut and poppy seeds are distinct in almost all the food there.

This is a coastal region, so delicacies of freshly caught fishes and other sea foods can be enjoyed over here. Typical South-Indian platters in one of their most authentic and lip-smacking forms. Jack fruit and palm fruits are grown in abundance, so many sweets made out of these fruits kindles our taste buds. Since this region has the border sharing with the Indian state Kerala, this region comprises many dishes of kerala cuisines such as puttu, avial, payasam, banana chips, jack fruit recipes, etc.

SOUTHERN TAMILNADU COOKING:

The southern districts like Madurai, Theni, Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi are famous for its non-veg culture. In this regions goat meat is the main non-veg item. Madurai has its unique style of cooking mutton( all parts of goat such as its brain, leg, meat, intestine, head and liver) with less spicy and aromatic. Mutton biriyani, Kari dosai( dosai stuffed with mutton gravy), kothu  parotta, Jigarthanda( a sweet and healthy drink) and Paruthipaal( sweet drink made of cotton seeds and jaggery) are famous in Madurai. Kazhani puli charu( stew made of tamarind and rice washed water) is a famous stew of village people in Madurai. For most of the nativity functions they used to serve non-veg food ( especially mutton biriyani).

MADRAS SAMAYAL:

Almost the districts Surrounding Chennai of Tamil Nadu has a same style of cooking with medium flavours of spices and coconut. Their daily ingredients includes curry leaves and coriander leaves for garnishing. Mint leaves are used widely by them. This style commonly known as Madras samayal, Since people from those districts are largely settled in Madras( Chennai).

We can sense the mingling aroma of coffee, fried snacks (bajji, vada, pakoras), sambar and biriyani in an array which assails our senses. Some dishes are originated there and some are adapted to fit their local tastes. People from all the regions of Tamilnadu and also all over India resides in Chennai. So the cooking style of Chennai people has different taste with their combination of all the traditional tastes.

SNACKS OF TAMILNADU:

Snacks are called as Thinpandam in tamil. Tamil Nadu is famous for its varieties of snacks. The main ingredients used for making varieties of snacks are rice flour, millet flour, cereals, jaggery and palm sugar which are healthy and nutritious. 

Snacks are meant to be crispy, sweet and yummy with lip- smacking tastes. Due to short of time in day to day life we forget many of our traditional snacks like Murukku, Adhisrasam, Thattai, Urundai, Kamarkat, Sundal, Vadai,etc. These snacks were felt as a mini meals and also healthy and tasty.

Living in modern era makes us to skip even our break fast in our daily life and buy ready made foods for hunger. This way junk foods influenced us by replacing our traditional foods and snacks. The increasing awareness in health and nutrition made us to hark back the usage of our traditional cereals and millets which is gaining more importance among the people.

"FOOD IS THE SYMBOLIC OF LOVE WHEN WORDS ARE INADEQUATE" . Lets give good and healthy food to our loved ones.