stomachs, taste buds and south Indian cuisine: a much abridged tour of the greats foods I have been eating

Above picture: The Staple

Chapati and dal is a staple of the south Indian diet. The chapatis are like tortillas, but different. And, dal is the same thing as curry.

Rice and dal is also a staple of the south Indian diet.

Here’s the south Indian rule: Either you scoop up some dal with your chapati and eat it or you mix some dal into your rice and eat it.

You will never find a South Indian mixing some rice and dal and then scooping the mixture up with their chapatti and eating it all in the same bite. It’s just an unsaid rule that all South Indians learned when they were little and for some reason they have never found the combination of the three to be very good.

I, on the other hand, find the combination of the three to be quite good. So, I frequently break this unsaid rule. When I first got here, this rule-breaking solicited helpful suggestions on how to properly eat chapatti, rice and dal from waiters or whoever I was eating my meal with.

They quickly found that I was a lost cause.
Above picture: Little white wads of wonder

Idlis and chutney are one of those you-can-eat-them-at-any-meal foods. You can find people eating the wads of steamed rice-paste breakfast, lunch and dinner.

They look simple to make but they aren’t. You have to make the rice-paste the day before and let it congeal over the night. In the morning, or whenever you want to make them, you then take the congealed rice-paste, wad it, steam it and serve it.

Above picture: Marry me, dosa

Not enough can be said about dosa. I have no idea why it hasn’t invaded dinner tables all around the world. It looks like a pancake, but is made of rice and tastes much better.

It also comes in many different forms, plain dosa, set dosa, masala dosa and onion dosa, just to name a few.

Above picture: The napkin says it all (seriously, look)

If these people can get their kaati roll-based franchise going, McDonalds should be very scared.

Kaati rolls look like some sort of soft taco/burrito hybrid. This is very true but their ingredients are all Indian.

Above picture: "Southside, represent"

The thali meal is the definitive Indian restaurant food. At restaurants, you can almost always choose between a North Indian meal and a South Indian meal. Whatever you choose, North or South, it will come on a thali which is the partitioned plate.

North Indians eat more wheat-based meals and South Indians eat more rice-based meals. That’s the easiest way to explain the difference between the two basic thali meals in one sentence.

Lesson of the day: If you don’t get sick, you will gain weight.