Chennai Cuisine

Chennai cuisine has a profound Tamil influence. Dosa, Idli, Vada, Pongal and Idiyappam are very popular with the people of the city. A traditional Chennai meal is served on banana leaf. Rice is the staple food of the place. It is accompanied by dry curry, sambar, kootu and rasam. Besides, there are restaurants serving cuisines from other parts of the world as well.

Chennai cuisine has got a deep Tamil influence. There is a variety of vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes available in Chennai. Some of the foods offered for breakfast are Dosa, Idli, Vada, Pongal and Idiyappam. They are served with coconut chutney, milagai podi and sambar dal. Dosa is made from fermented batter of rice and urad dal. Idli are rice cakes made from fermented batter of rice and lentils. Other foods of Chennai include Upma, Chettinad dishes like uthappam and appam and also Parota (north-Indian paratha).

Chennai, being an important tourist location, also serves continental cuisines like Chinese, European Continental, Korean, Mexican, Mediterranean, Italian, Japanese and Thai. There is a number of restaurant serving cuisines of these varied types. Coffee is consumed by people at large in Chennai.

The Madras Chennai Filter Coffee is very popular with the people.

A unique feature of the Chennai cuisine is that it is a blend of all the six tastes—sweet, salt, sour, bitter, pungent and astringent. A traditional Chennai lunch or dinner is served on banana leaf. Rice, the staple food, is served with vegetables like dry curry, sambar, kootu and rasam. Sometimes crisp appalams accompanies the meal. A non-vegetarian meal is prepared with fish, mutton or chicken. Chettinad Pepper Chicken is very popular among the non-vegetarians.

The restaurants serve meals on plates made of stainless steel or silver and are called ‘Thali’. Some of the well-known restaurants serving excellent food in Chennai are: