Adventures in South Indian Food

In my recent visit to Bangalore, I discovered that Indian cuisine was way more diverse than the typical Tikka Masala and Tandoori that we get in California. It's like Chinese food; for those in the know, there is Shanghainese food, Cantonese food, Szechuan food—way more variety and specialization than just Kung Pao chicken and potstickers like we get at generic Chinese restaurants.

Since Bangalore is in the south, most of my food discoveries were in South Indian cuisine.

Yummy savory breakfasts

I love South Indian breakfasts. It's wonderful when I make time to start the day with a slow, warm breakfast and hot masala tea—often as day breaks and the sky slowly lights up.

Idlis, steamed rice cakes, became a major love affair! I love the warm and soft spongy texture, and its mild sweet taste. From the large ones that you dip in sambhar (a savory dal stew) for breakfast, to the small ones tossed in some sort of red chili powder, I love idlis of all sizes and flavors!

Talking about idlis was a great ice-breaker with locals. My driver was pleased about my idli obsession; there was a sense of camaraderie that we both had the same thing for breakfast. During home visits, a research respondent's wife was excited to show me her family idli mixture, and the utensils she used to cook idlis in the morning.

Another great breakfast is dosa, a rice and lentil crepe. You can have it plain, and dip it in sambhar. Or you can have ones that are stuffed, like this Masala Dosa with spiced potatoes.

Beyond Nan

On menus, there's usually a nice long list for breads that go beyond just nan.

The many-layered parathas are a favorite. They remind me of the roti pratas I grew up with in Singapore.

Then there is appam, a bread made from rice that kind of looks like a pancake. I love the soft and spongy middle!

Rice

Idlis, appams—these are all made from rice. That's because rice is an important part of South India cuisine. Locals will tell you that they don't feel right if they don't eat rice for a while. That's probably a big reason why I love South Indian food so much—rice is such an important part of my life too!

Besides the typical basmatic rice, I discovered the amazingly fragrant Nellore rice. Even plain, it smelled so wonderful and tasted so delicious!

Sweets

I find a lot of similarity between South Indian desserts and Chinese desserts.

This is one of my favorites, Bebinca—a many-layered soft, spongy cake. It reminds me of the thousand-layered steamed cake that you get in some Chinese dim sum restaurants. This one is technically a Goan dessert, so it's really West Indian rather than South Indian.

Warm sweet soup is another common dessert. I love this milky sweet soup with yam. Next to it is a picture of Karshu Barfi, a cashew sweet cake. It's super sweet, like some of the thick sweet paste cakes we get in some Chinese cuisine. Can't say I love it, but it's nice in small bites with tea.

Crazy about their surveys

At the end of your meal, before you get your check, be prepared to fill out a survey. Yet for all the diligence in getting these distributed and filled out, there's little concern about research accuracy! Waiters stand by watchfully, with a huge smile, as you fill them out. Some go so far as to encourage you to fill it out a certain way, and to put their names on the form if you like the service. What else can one do except fill out "great" on every column?

If you want to find out more about South Indian food, here's a link to a pretty-exhaustive Wiki page.