Puli Paniyaram, Anyone

Of the many highlights at the Santhigiri festival, food festival is one. Food stalls serving Kerala delicacies, Chinese items and Chettinad specialities can be found at the fest. The preparations of making authentic Chettinad food would tempt anyone to go and check out the stall. With four or five chairs spread across the stall, families come in to try new tastes. Most of their specialities are dishes which many haven’t tasted ever before. The best part is that you can see these delicacies being prepared. At the corner of the stall you see two old ladies Krishammal and Sigappi sitting stooping over the gas stove busy making vellai paniyaram, puli paniyaram, ada and many more. These ladies from Shivaganga at Tamil Nadu, belonging to the community ‘Nattu Kotta Chetti’, are experts in preparing Chettinad food. They have travelled to many countries making the  dishes for marriage ceremonies. On asked as to what they were making for the day, Krishammal replied, “Today we are making varieties of Paniyarams.” Sharing a gas stove, they make two different items. After making vellai paniyaram and storing it in a casserole, Krishammal gets ready to make ada. It’s a dish made of different types of pulses, with mint leaves, curry leaves and other spices. Mixing all of it in rice flour, she pours the semi solid mixture into the hot tava. After a while using a steel spatula she turns the ada. Once cooked, she hands it over to Karunanand who is in charge of the stall. On the other stove, Sigappi makes puli paniyaram in moulds filled with hot oil. Making it is a long process. Varieties of rice are mixed together and left for fermenting for four hours. After adding other ingredients, she pours a spoonful of mixture to each mould. These soft Chettinad dumplings are served hot with tomato chutney and red chilly chutney. The tomato chutney they prepare is made of roasted pulses, chilly, garlic and tomatoes. Serving these to each customer they ask in Tamil, “Did you like the taste of it?”Apart from these they make koumi ari payasam made of black rice available only in Burma, kadar appam, cheeyam served with onion chutney, and kadama vadai. The stall also sells crisps like thattai, kai murukk, thekulal, mul murukku, mavurudai and more.When customers roll their eyes at the list of things they make, the two women sheepishly smile saying, “This is nothing. In Shivagaga for marriages we serve almost 48 varieties of sweets, 15 varieties of curries, seven types of rasam, 16 varieties of pachadi, 30 kinds of chutney and 15 varieties of pickles on one leaf.”