Breakfast - Morning Favourites

Idli or Idlee - a tasty low calorie dish, is usually taken in morning as breakfast. It is made from the rice flour and black gram, soaked and grinded to form the batter. The batter is fermented and then steamed give nice soft fluffy idlis. The softness depends on the rice, black gram ration as well as the texture and consistency of the batter. No wonder Idli doesn’t taste the same everywhere. In Chennai, Muruggan Idli shop is very famous for it’s idlis. The idly is served with white chutney, green chutney and sambhar. Optionally with podi also( a grounded spicy mixture with oil). Idli is easy to digest and recommended even for infants as their starting food. Even sick patients can have them as it contains probiotic bacteria which aids in digestion..

Dosa – A favourite and tasty breakfast dish in India. The rice flour batter is spread on a hot flat pan evenly as a thin layer. It is applied with ghee or butter or oil on the edges and at the center portion to make it crispy. Again the crispiness depends on the texture, consistency of the batter and the on the method of spreading the batter. This is also served with white chutney, green chutney and sambhar.

There are many varieties of dosa’s available in India. Some of them are

1) Paper roast – Very thin doas with ghee
2) Masala Dosa – Dosa which has a potato masala in the center.
3) Kal dosa – small round dosas with the the layer a bit thick.
4) Ghee roast dosa – Thin roasted Dosa with plenty of ghee
5) Podi Dosa - Dosa which has spicy podi in the center.
6) Onion dosa – Dosa flour mixed with onion cut into very small pieces.
7) Rava dosa – Dosa flour mixed with rava.
8) Wheat dosa – Dosa flour mixed with rava.
9) Uthapam – dosa flour mixed with onion, red chillies and some ingredients.

Pongal– is a traditional tamilnadu dish which is prepared during the festival of harvesting, Pongal. The festival pongal is named after the dish, which is prepared in open space in the villages as a celebration of the good yield of harvesting. This dish is not only associated with the festival as it is more popular, that you can find them in most of the hotels. Vadai is normally served with the dish.

Also there are influences of certain dishes from kerala, such as idiyapam (sting hoppers), Pittu( a.k.a puttu) and aapam which are now popular at chennai.

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