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South Indian food kicks butt!!!!!!


Gaurav

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The taste of Dakshin Bharat (South India) which I will never forget is my Onam experience. I being a UPwalla was totally suprised by the variety of food :two_thumbs_up: Went to a friend's place, who is from Kerala on Onam day and was served those foods on Banana Leaf with so many variety of curries poured in small quantity...I am really unable to count how many of them were there. And then those sweet dishes at least there were 4-5 of them cooked hot (including milk and rice mixed with sugar item). Also Chutney and Chaas like drink (I guess butter milk mixed with ginger, pudina leaves etc.) were great appetizers. After this great eating experience I will rate ONAM as best festival of India ahead of Diwali, Holi, Dussera, Teej etc.

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I loveeee idli, chutney and sambhar! I could have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner! And I also love my rice and rasam - simple yet soooo tasty. Not the greatest fan of bisibelebath. Pulliogare (tamarind rice) rules though :two_thumbs_up: I really don't like yengay - I believe up in N Karnataka, it's meant to be eaten with some special sort of roti? My dad loves it.

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I dont know what you call that in English Gaurav ' date=' but in Tamil its called " Molaga Podi" , which translates simply as Chilli powder. Generally , they add a bit of oil to and it eat with the Dosa. Absolute heaven it is ![/quote'] Isn't it [appropriately!] named 'gunpowder'?
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You bet ! Try Madras Chicken Curry' date=' Chicken 65 , Guntur Chicken Curry , Chetinaad Fish Curry to name a few.[/quote'] Why stop at Muddu stuff? What about Mallu beef pothu/ porto/porichadu, pork curry, meen moily; and Gultu pethala koora, chappala pusulu, mirappakai kodi; or Kannada massa stew, yetti azadina?
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One thing to be noted though is that most of the cuisines out of India being discussed above have a few things in common -- at least in their most widely available avatar. Whether it be iddly/ dosai/ vadai from the South, the ubiquitous chicken butter masala and various kebabs that make up the face of North Indian cuisine elsewhere — more often than not, they are strongly flavoured, easy to make snacks/ appetizers. Not that such cuisines lack subtlety, but the more subtle and multi-layered flavours are harder to appreciate and so don't seem to travel that well across regional borders. Which is why Bengali cuisine, which perhaps makes use of the widest variety of ingredients (owing to the fact that no section of Bengali society follow any religious or social stricture wrt shunning certain food items), and being rooted in local ingredients while adapting freely from regional and international cuisines (a bastardization that is reflected as much in the language as the people) — is so difficult to make and serve as restaurant food. It's slowly changing though, and away from the 'Mashir Hotel' type pice-hotels that exist in every corner of the country — from Kashmir to Kanyakumari — where the middle class Bengali tourist has ended up in his quest for enlightenment and bliss during his/her annual group tour on a budget during the (Durga) Puja vacations. Which just means you folks who are less fortunate :D can now savor the flavours of : Vegetables: alu posto [potato with poppy seed paste], mochar ghonto [spicy fried banana flowers], kochur loti [yam tendrils with the head of the Hilsa fish], muri ghonto [head of large fish with rice, vegetables and spices], shukto [bitter gourd and other vegetables in a broth made with milk and radhuni spice], begun pora [somewhat like the baingan bharta, except that the aubergine is grilled, not steamed] Carnivorous: Hilsa Fish — prepared deep fried, paturi, bhape, ambole, begun'r jhole Prawns/ Shrimp — malaikari, shorshe'r jhal Other Fish — in jhal, jhole and ambole Mutton kosha Chicken Dak Bungla ... in many snazzy new restaurants that have opened up recently in Kolkata (and no doubt in other parts of India and the world), as a result of the efforts of a handful of innovative chefs who decided to face the issue of a lack of Bengali high [if not fine] dining restaurants, and have been followed by a myriad group of entrepreneurs with mid-range home-style offerings. However, I doubt if any of the two items that are considered dark secrets for every Bengali hNeshel [kitchen] can be found in any of the above places — the khichuri [khichree in Hindi, kedgeree/ hodge podge in English] which is the magic recipe for the monsoons (when shops and cities are flooded) and for other times of crisis; and the panta bhaat [leftover rice fermented in water, mixed with spices and eaten chilled with variety of fried small fishes, fresh lime and a slice of onion], which needs to be followed by a mandatory afternoon siesta in the excruciatingly hot summers!

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that Baingan ka chokha..i have eaten...is always grilled... even tomato of tomato chokha is grilled....or baked on tawa... one dish which really maked me wonder is "Amritsari Fish"..अमृत्सरी मछली a fish dish that too in Punjab..which has no tradition of sea food or river food... but they taste good....

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