Indulge in some authentic south indian food

So I moved to Bangalore about 13 years ago, I have mentioned this before on the blog but I will say it again when I moved here all I knew about South Indian food was Idly and Dosa, oh yes Uttapam and vada too. These were the starting and ending of the range of South Indian food for me, they were served with sambhar and chutney and I could eat them anytime of the day. May be I knew the occasional variety rices like Lemon rice, coconut rice courtesy a South Indian friend I had made in office. I loved the food I knew and then I moved to Bangalore and hence started my introduction to the gorgeous flavourful south indian food.

From the delicious South Indian Thali (which can differ from region to region) and typically contains a dal, sambhar, kottu, papad, a variety rice, plain steamed rice and may be a sweet. It is typically served in a banana leaf.

Tamil style banana leaf meal at Arusuvai Madhuram, HSR Layout

Or its the glorious Onam Sadya, the pure vegetarian elaborate banana leaf meal of Kerala made specially on the festival Onam. I made this last year on Onam and had such a good time planning out a south indian menu for the feast. This was the first ever banana leaf meal I cooked. From knowing only idly dosas to this, haven’t I come a long way

Onam Sadya

South Indian food has so much flavour of its own and so much variety, consider Pandi Curry from Coorg for example. It is totally different from any of the foods I have mentioned above. Rich and tangy pork curry, it has been featured in many articles as must eat food from India

Pandi Curry & Pita at Monkey Bar

If you thought this is drool worthy, don’t forget the brilliant sea food curries of the Kerala

Vypeen Chemmin Piralan – Tiger Prawns in a hotly spiced marinade, cooked in the shell. A speciality of the Fisher’s island of Vypeen Kerala

Or the delightful Kane Fish fry from Mangalore

Kane Fry

South Indian food is so versatile and full of flavour that a few pictures don’t do justice to it.