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HERITAGE CUISINE The Karaikudi food festival offers a rich, wide choice in Chettinad cuisine

Bringing you the true taste of the cuisine are S. Ganeshan, his wife C. Alamu and chef R. Dharmalingam, all the way from the quaint heritage town: A town supported by the flourishing Chettiar community, a town where their ways and wealth make for vibrant heritage; where each home is a veritable trove of tradition, housing the most fascinating antiques that tell a story of another time. The houses, temples, art on every auspicious place and vessels, the windows, and doors everything spells a ritual, even something spiritual. Into this culture comes their cuisine.

Chettinad cuisine is spicy and hot but at the festival it is mild. Ganeshan and Alamu who cater for weddings and festivals, who cook in those big kitchens have brought with them what they call a kuzhipanniyaram chatti, a flat dish with small circular depressions, something like our own ‘unniyappakkara’. Placing it proudly on the dining table they explain that the vessel is essential to Chettinad cuisine. But what they fry in them is not unniyappam. It is a mixture of rice, grams, spices. Gently placing his fingers into the moulds he says, “Each bowl is filled with a mixture of spices added to ground rice. It is fried lightly with drizzles of oil.” This is a snack served with chutney. No beef or pork is part of Chettinad cuisine, which is otherwise largely non-vegetarian. For weddings the food is vegetarian and 21 varieties are served on the Thanjavur thattelai, a very big banana leaf.

At the festival the menu begins from a choice of soups. The tomato rasam is the perfect starter. Tangy, hot and spicy and garnished with coconut slivers the rasam sets the palate for the piquant fare to follow. The traditional lemon rice is fluffy tempered with mustard and curry leaves, with black lentil and red chillies, its citric freshness rising through pale yellow rice.

The aadu kheera curry (mutton with spinach) is mutton cooked in a gravy of onions and tomatoes till soft. It is seasoned with spices to which is added blanched spinach. The thick green meat is irresistible and a must have at the festival. The Chettinad chicken curry is familiar and common but the mutton dish is special.

And what gives the meat dishes the special flavour is the bouquet got from a paste of kalpasi (a fungus found on barks of trees), bay leaf, cardamom, pepper, cloves and cinnamon that’s added to most of the dishes. “The kalpasi is unique to our cuisine,” informs Ganeshan.

For something sweet have the ukra. It is the piece de resistance. A halwa dessert it is made with semolina, moong dal, ghee, sugar, coconut and cashew nuts. It is a fitting finale to the rich food heritage of Karaikudi.

This menu at the festival has a wide choice of exciting combinations and comes at Rs. 400 for a person.

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