Eating in Southern India
A selection of south Indian dishes
South Indian food is quite different from that elsewhere in the country, being mostly rice-based. They also make greater use of pulses. The typical meal is sambhar or koottu (a watery curry) with rice, or avial (mixed vegetables) with rice. There are regional variations too ? the coastal regions make greater use of coconut and fish. In the State of Kerala, it is common to use grated coconut in everything and coconut oil for cooking, while someone from the interior could be surprised to learn that coconut oil, can in fact, be used for cooking.
A very incomplete list of typical standalone Southern dishes, all of which are commonly eaten for breakfast:
idli, a spongy steamed cake made of lentils and rice
dosa, a thin, crispy pancake again made of lentils and rice. A highly popular variant involves stuffing the dosa with spiced potato mash and rolling it up to make masala dosa.
pongal, a sweetened rice dish with the consistency of firm porridge.
sevai, rice noodles, thin as vermicelli.
uttapam, fried pancake made from a lentil and rice batter, with onions and other vegetables mixed in.
vada, fried Indian donut, but savoury and spiced.
All of these can be eaten with plain yogurt, and chutney, a condiment that can be made from practically anything. South Indian cuisine is predominantly vegetarian, though Chettinad, Andhra and Kerala cuisines use meat heavily and are a lot more spicier. Coffee (kaapi in Tamil) tends to replace tea in the south.
Lunch on a banana leaf (no rice added yet)
A South Indian speciality is the banana leaf meal. This consists of steamed rice served with about two to six vegetable dishes like sambhar, porial (a dry stir-fried dish), rasam (a thin, peppery soup), koottu along with curd and buttermilk, all spread out on a disposable and environmentally-friendly banana leaf. For a non-vegetarian meal, curries or dishes cooked with mutton, chicken or fish are included. Meals are often accompanied by crisp appalams. Refills of curry and rice are often free, with men with buckets walking around to serve you more. After a final round of rice and curds or buttermilk or both, a traditional meal is concluded with a small banana and a few betel leaves and nuts. If served on a metal tray instead of a banana leaf, a set meal like this is known as a thali instead.
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The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Southern India
