Cuisines of Karaikudi | Tamilnadu Karaikudi Cuisines

Karaikudi

The Karaikudu cuisine is much sought after. It takes 23 spices to make this. For the vegetarians the Milagai mandi, kaikari keerai mandi and parangikkai puli kari are very popular.

The nonvegetarians can choose from virundhu kozhi, mukkoli, kozhi vindhari, mutton chops, chicken and mutton biriyani.

The variety for fish lovers is. Muttai kotha, meen puttu and kari podimas.

Desserts like pal paniyaram, tirunelveli halwa and the crisp jalebis perfectly round up a great meal.

The typical sweet dish is annasi kinnam —  a seasonal fresh fruits in jaggery, cardamom and saffron flavoured coconut milk, served in a pineapple shell.

Chettinad History :          

Chettinad Cuisine originated from the kitchens of the Chettiars. The cuisine had its origin in a small village called Nedungudi, about 600 km south of Chennai. Like other south Indian cuisines, a typical Chettinad menu is served on a banana leaf with many mouth-watering dishes.

Initially, it was the aachis who prepared food for the feasts in Chettiar homes.  Interestingly, many of the cooks learnt their skills from the aachis when working in Chettiar homes. Later, as they moved into the urban and semi-urban areas due to the lure of business, they popularized Chettinad cuisine and led to the proliferation of Chettinad restaurants.

Chettinad cuisine is famous for its use of a variety of spices used in preparing mainly non-vegetarian food. The dishes are hot and pungent with fresh ground masalas, and topped with a boiled egg that is usually considered essential part of a meal.

Chettinad cuisine has several variations of fish, prawn, mutton, and chicken dishes, of which the Chettinad Pepper Chicken is a specialty. Besides hot and spicy dishes, the cuisine consists of an array of vegetarian dishes. The cuisine will surely be a delight for those who like hot and spicy non vegetarian dishes. Most of the dishes are eaten with rice and rice based accompaniments such as dosais, appams, idiyappams and idlis.

Karaikudi Chettinad Restaurant. 1671 OakTree Road, Edison, NJ 08820. (732) 516-0020.  Closed Tuesdays. Hours 11;30 to 3:00 and 5:30 to 10 PM. Weekends : 12 noon to 4:ooPM and 5:30 to 11 PM.

P.S There seems to be a sudden exposion in the number of restaurants featuring South Indian food , no doubt because of a sizeable portion of the recent Indian immigrants work in the IT field and are from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. There are at least two other Chettinad restaurants that have opened here recently and I intend to try them out in the new year.

Contact us for Prior Booking at our 24 Hours desk on the following mobile Nos: +91-99428 99555 , 98424 30308 , 99425 87000 . Email Id : info@tourisminsouthindia.com, Fax No: 0422 - 2331605.

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