The art of South Indian eating
Is it really so tough to comprehend? What is it about South Indian food that others just don't get? Every time we invite people over, or we're in a place with rice and lots of southern curries, I wince in pain as I watch North Indians and others eat.
Let me explain...I see the rice first go into the plate. This is where things go haywire. In rapid succession, sambar, kootu, rasam (and whatever else appears in remotely liquid form) all go into the same pile of rice! Blasphemy! Sacrilege! Horror!! Can one not figure out that adding multiple distinctly flavored gravies onto the same plate just does not give you any one taste? What is the point? What are you trying to achieve here? Just want to get over the meal as fast as possible? Entreaties from shell-shocked folk like us that there is a sequence to eating rice and gravies fall on deaf ears. No wonder we hear that all our food tastes the same. Well duh!
Okay, on behalf of all Madrasis (as we are all erroneously termed as), I take it upon myself to explain the protocol which will hopefully give you the ideal eating experience of our cuisine.
If there are powders to be mixed in rice, start off from there. Use a spot of ghee or oil and mix it in the rice. Add the powders based on your tolerance for spice. Mix it well so the result looks like a pulao (well, almost). Now, don't go and spoil it by adding a huge ladle of rasam on top of the rice! Once the mixing procedure is done, add a small helping of the daal of the rasam, or some sambar on the side. On the side mind you, so none of the gravy and rice mix. You then make small balls of the rice, lightly dip each one into the side gravy and then savor the flavor. Potato sabji or pickle are also able accompaniments.
Once the plate is cleaned of the first course, you then move onto the next gravy. Again, mix it in rice and use sabjis as side dishes for each handful of rice-gravy you are eating.
Remember that curd rice is held in absolute reverence in the south and that is the last course of your meal. The penultimate course is rasam and rice so if there are more liquid dishes other than rasam, have them with rice first, and in sequence, before having rasam and rice.
Simple right? Yes it is if only you would listen to our pleas for right eating methods! One caveat though....any meal with rice is best eaten with your (right) hand and please please don't use your hand like a shovel! Use your hand like you do when you eat other things like say, chocolate, burrito, pizza...whatever... Come on! You can do it. It has been done before and it works!
So, the next time you are invited for wholesome South Indian food, astonish your hosts and give them unbridled joy and the satisfaction that what they made matters and that each dish deserves to be treated with respect and uniqueness.
Let me explain...I see the rice first go into the plate. This is where things go haywire. In rapid succession, sambar, kootu, rasam (and whatever else appears in remotely liquid form) all go into the same pile of rice! Blasphemy! Sacrilege! Horror!! Can one not figure out that adding multiple distinctly flavored gravies onto the same plate just does not give you any one taste? What is the point? What are you trying to achieve here? Just want to get over the meal as fast as possible? Entreaties from shell-shocked folk like us that there is a sequence to eating rice and gravies fall on deaf ears. No wonder we hear that all our food tastes the same. Well duh!
Okay, on behalf of all Madrasis (as we are all erroneously termed as), I take it upon myself to explain the protocol which will hopefully give you the ideal eating experience of our cuisine.
If there are powders to be mixed in rice, start off from there. Use a spot of ghee or oil and mix it in the rice. Add the powders based on your tolerance for spice. Mix it well so the result looks like a pulao (well, almost). Now, don't go and spoil it by adding a huge ladle of rasam on top of the rice! Once the mixing procedure is done, add a small helping of the daal of the rasam, or some sambar on the side. On the side mind you, so none of the gravy and rice mix. You then make small balls of the rice, lightly dip each one into the side gravy and then savor the flavor. Potato sabji or pickle are also able accompaniments.
Once the plate is cleaned of the first course, you then move onto the next gravy. Again, mix it in rice and use sabjis as side dishes for each handful of rice-gravy you are eating.
Remember that curd rice is held in absolute reverence in the south and that is the last course of your meal. The penultimate course is rasam and rice so if there are more liquid dishes other than rasam, have them with rice first, and in sequence, before having rasam and rice.
Simple right? Yes it is if only you would listen to our pleas for right eating methods! One caveat though....any meal with rice is best eaten with your (right) hand and please please don't use your hand like a shovel! Use your hand like you do when you eat other things like say, chocolate, burrito, pizza...whatever... Come on! You can do it. It has been done before and it works!
So, the next time you are invited for wholesome South Indian food, astonish your hosts and give them unbridled joy and the satisfaction that what they made matters and that each dish deserves to be treated with respect and uniqueness.
Ok, got u. We North Indians don't know how to eat South Indian food but can't understand u Southies either. My mum runs a catering business in Bangalore and she will get an order totally consisting of North Indian and Punjabi dishes but it has to be accompanied with Curd rice!!! Not the right way to end a North Indian meal is it Mr. Prasad????
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No doubt that's a terrible way to end a North Indian meal! But like I said curd rice is held in reverence and no meal, whatever type is complete without curd rice! What to do! but, you will have to forgive this one failing we have. Doctors here actually recommend curd rice as medication in Karnataka!
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hi bachu, good advice, will keep in mind when visiting bangalore in aug. i still hav to master the art of chasing curry with a spoon....
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Best not use a spoon at all
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Bachchu,
am going to carry a copy of this around to guide all my North Indian friends wading through rasam!
Love the way you write. Feel threatened too. You are not planning to give it all up and join the journalism business are you?
Much love, Panku
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A fantastic presentation. Very open and informative.You have beautifully presented your thought in this blog post
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I like your style, the fact that your site is a little bit different makes it so interesting, I get fed up of seeing same-old-same-old all of the time. I've just stumbled this page for you
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This is my first time at your blog and I've really enjoyed looking around. I will come back again in the future to check out some of the other articles.
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This is valuable and helpful to this six-foot, fifty-something Texan who has never been west of L.A. or east of New Orleans. I gained a new respect for your cuisine thanks to your efforts. Come to Waco sometime and try our Tex/Mex dining!
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I am familiar with Tex/Mex cuisine having lived in Arizona for 13 years. Thanks for the invite to Waco! Will definitely do that someday.
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