Chettinadu Cuisine
Chettinad Cuisine is famous throughout Asia and gaining popularity in other parts of the world too. As the Chettiars travelled far and wide, they picked up ingredients suitable to their palate and made their own unique recipes. Most Chettinad recipes contain spices but importance was given to flavored spices. Many of the dishes are rice, dhal, wheat, gram based with a variation of spices like Cinnamon, Clove, Cardamom, Khush Khush, Pepper, Bay Leaf etc.
Every part of Chettinad cuisine is characterized by variety. There are several varieties of rice which come in different colors and sizes. Sweetening also features variety in the form of refined sugar, jaggery, karuppatty etc.
Paniyaram, Kulippaniyaram, Kolakkatai and Cheeyam are just a few of the savouries that are unique to Chettinad. Chettinad Chicken, Uppu Kari, Vendikkai Mundy, Kola Urundai and Mutton Podimas are some of the unique side dishes of Chettinad.
In desserts too Chettinad has its very own dishes like Kavanarisi, Paal Kolakkattai, Kandarappam and Inippu Paniyaram.
The dishes are traditionally served in banana leaves. Beetle leaves with quick lime and beetle nuts are chewed for digestion.
One of the researches behind the nomenclature of the world famous chicken 65 also lends credit to the Chettiars. It says that the Chettiars marinated the chicken with preservatives after which it was sun dried. This light, dried form of chicken was easy to carry and cook and formed an integral part of their traveling kitchen. This chicken is said to have kept good for 65 days, and so the name chicken 65.
