Spicy, But Without Chillies

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: Chettined cuisine represents the nattukottai Chettiars, who were traditionally bankers and businessmen. Chettinad is a small place but the nattukottai Chettiars live in a geographical area which is quite vast and includes Tirupattur, Madurai, Karaikudi, Palamkottai, Paramkudi and Rameswaram. Earlier, they lived near the coast in Rameswaram and after a landslide moved into the interiors which are very hot. Their cuisine thus includes a lot of seafood.

Since Chettiars travelled a lot to other countries in the olden times for trade, their cuisine reflects influences from places like China, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Indonesia. With the shift to the interiors from the coast, the cuisine had to be basically cooling for the body. Lamb is thus a major favourite and it is also very cooling. It is consumed in various forms. Lamb is also pickled and this is done in the long hot months which dry it up well. Seafood is generally heat generating and is eaten in winters. The most popular fish is prawn which is pickled, too. Dry fish is another favourite. The vegetables are also pickled in a major way.

Chettinad cuisine is of a spicy nature. Spice does not mean chillies. Chillies are an imported ingredient. India is more popular for its black pepper. Since the Britishers did not know what to do with the red chillies and wanted black pepper, which was black gold for them, they imported pepper from here and brought into the country red chillies. But the Chettinad cuisine consists of spice in the form of black pepper.

A normal Chettinad meal will have three dishes...a vegetarian dish, a chicken/ lamb/ fish curry, then a dry fish or prawn or lamb pickle. The most popular dish known all over is the Chettinad chicken curry. But if one were to go to Chettinad and ask for it, they would not be able to serve you that. Simply because, the dish is known as chicken kozhambu (curry) and not the popular name by which it is known outside the region! And there are various forms of the kozhambu depending on the households. Another popular dish is paya, which is mostly consumed as a soup, for it strengthens the spine and is good for the convalescing.