A 'Simple' Tamil Nadu Thaali

As I mentioned in my yesterday's post, it is time for mega marathon this month with the theme of Indian thaalis and platters. I reserved this week for everyday style mini thaalis. I chose to go with the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu for today's mini meal platter aka saapadu. It is a simple, traditional style, vegetarian meal platter. A typical Tamil Nadu or for that matter, any south Indian style lunch menu revolves around rice and is always a balanced meal of carbs, proteins and vegetables. Each side dish is eaten in a specific order, mixed with a small portion of rice and drizzled with ghee. A vegetable preparation is eaten as a side dish while rice is eaten first with a lentil and vegetable based gravy, followed by a thin, spicy broth called rasam and the meal is rounded off with a serving of yogurt and rice or buttermilk. There would be a pickle or an instant chutney or a spicy powder (podi) to perk up the meal. It may be a chutney / thogayal prepared that day with a vegetable or lentil base or a pickle / oorkaai scooped out from a jar, that was made and preserved during summer months for the year long usage. And then there may be some fried popadums / sun dried fritters that every one enjoys but are optional for everyday meals. Ghee, salt and water are of course part of the meal. Sweets and snacks are usually reserved for special occasions at homes. One can even add a banana to the thaali if it is not an every day meal.

Though people still practice this regimen, one cannot forget that the word 'traditional' is the keyword here. People in the modern day hustle bustle may not have enough time to cook all the side dishes and may opt for one or two side dishes or sometimes even just a wholesome, one pot meal. Now let's come back to our traditional style meal. The vegetable preparation typically can be a dry saute called poriyal or a fry that is common across the south Indian states. Or preparations with regional touches or those ones unique to the state. The tamarind based lentil / gravy preparations typically fall under sambhar, kuzhambu, kootu, paruppu varieties. The food never gets boring taking into consideration how a typical housewife injects variety into everyday cooking rotating the recipes from repertoire.

This was one of those meals I wished I could serve on a plantain leaf but had to manage with my steel plate which is what typically used back home to eat everyday meals (at least these past few decades.) No cutlery is used in the traditional style of eating. And also the side dishes are not served in cups either since each item is individually eaten. For example rice and sambhar is mixed in a plate using the tips of the right hand fingers, scooped up and eaten. There may be a small serving of some chutney, curry or a papad on the side. Once the sambhar - rice is finished, rice and rasam are again added to the plate and so on.

We almost always have a chutney / pickle, curry, sambhar, rasam, yogurt to go with our rice. I therefore included those varieties in the meal and had kootu as an extra as it is a personal favorite and usually part of a traditional spread . Hop over here for the recipe of cucumber kootu.  I had a sago kheer prepared for neivedyam that day and so it went into the platter as well. This is a Tamil Brahmin aka tambram style mini thaali without the usage of onion and garlic. My lunch platter had the following items along with rice. (Usually we would place the pickle next to curry, I realized later.)

Avakkai - Mango pickle in powdered mustard base
Appalam - Papad (Microwaved)
Vazhakkai poriyal - Plantain curry with addition of coconut and simple seasoning 
Varutharacha kuzhambu - Mixed vegetable gravy
Vellerikka kootu - Cucumber and moongdal stew
Rasam - Lentil and tomato broth
Thayir - Yogurt
Javvarisi payasam - Sago kheer / Tapioca pearl pudding

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