South Indian food - In detail

As one goes southwards in India, food turns out to be hotter and hotter. South Indian cuisine consists of hot curries, lots of rice and much less meat tha
North Indian food. Vegetarianism is the custom here rather than a choice, and the major item in every meal is a huge pile of white rice. The food here gets the taste from cumin (jeera), coriander, turmeric, mustard seeds, ginger, black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon along with chili.

Breakfast in south India

Dosas are an Indian face of pancakes, fried in oil. Masala dosa is a thin pancake packed with highly spiced potatoes and onion and plain dosa comes as the name implies, devoid of any filling. Other varieties consist of paper dosa, sweet dosa, rava (semolina) dosa etc.

One more all the rage item on the breakfast menu is a plate of idlis, soft cakes made from fermented lentils and rice, occasionally accompanied by vada, a hot deep-fried doughnut. Dosas, idlis and vadas are generally served with coconut chutney and sambar, a lentil and vegetable stew that is cooked with tamarind.

Upma is prepared with semolina, vegetables, nuts and spices, kesari bath is a bright yellow and sweet semolina dish, and served together these two are identified as chow-chow bath.

Thali Lunchr
Lunch in a usual, non-tourist orientated South Indian restaurant means thali, an all-you-can-eat serving of food that is served on a platter or on a banana leaf, and contains rice with a number of diverse curries and other dishes. At times it also comes with chapati, flat bread prepared from whole wheat flour or a crunchy fried papad (poppadom).

A South Indian thali will always consist of rasam, a hot soup, and ample amount of sambar. Most thalis come with curd, the usual yoghurt that you can blend with some rice and pickle to make curd rice.

Lastly, nearly all South Indian vegetarian restaurants serve specific foods at particular time. Midday to 3 pm is lunch (thali) time, and between 3-5 pm, lots of places just serve snacks. From 5-7pm is once more time for those dosas that you previously had for breakfast, and dinner is served from 7 pm including south Indian desserts.