sartoric

Just for all you tuna haters, my lunch was leftover Tuscan tuna and bean salad. I always buy it oil packed, and for the record, don't care for canned salmon (unless it's in salmon patties)

@KennethT, that's correct, and many places were strictly vegetarian. Some of our meals were at hotels or resorts that cater to western tourists, so had options for meat eaters. He who must be fed is a devout carnivore (although less so now) and would naturally gravitate to meat options.

After the walk, we're treated to a local place for a typical South Indian breakfast, sharing with a Canadian couple, sorry no photos, but here's an elephant.

A "Watching the city wake up" tour in Madurai. Still dark at 5.45 am, we are led by torch through narrow alleys and busy streets. Here we learn about the art of Kolam (where women clean the street in front of their house and apply a closed loop design with chalk, sometimes also turmeric and saffron), the cow family relationship, house styles, many other things, and hit the wholesale and retail markets. The line between the two was blurred. Betel leaves. Eggs. Bananas (we each tried a red one, yummy). Dried chillies. Banana leaf plates. Randoms. Tumeric for road painting.

Dinner at the Palmtree Restaurant in Madurai, a halal, barbecue joint. Veg cutlets with cauliflower masala, followed by pepper chicken fry with salad and chips. I detest green capsicum, so passed on the salad. Washed down with refreshing lime salt sodas.

Thanks for chiming in @Kerala, we did spend a week in Kerala, a vast contrast to Tamil Nadu, but still lovely. For this part of our trip we had a car and driver, who was excellent btw. As he got to know us, a coffee stop became par for the course. Usually at places like this... Later I would learn to make Keralan coffee.

It's still too hot in the kitchen, so a selection of cold stuff happened. Thawed roast turkey breast, white and dark, shaved ham, salami, olives, pickles, baby beetroot, a tuna and bean salad, plus tomato, basil and bocconcini salad. Sourdough bread, mango relish and mustard pickles. I'm itching to try out some recently acquired recipes from India...maybe next week.

I agree they look like samosa, terminology can be loose here or I might have just got it wrong. The pakoras you refer to are known as pakoda here. Almost everything has multiple different spellings....

I forgot to mention breakfast, this is dosa, not the first and certainly not the last. Seen here with black rice and tomato chutney. Frustrating that they serve in dribs and drabs, there was more that ended up on my plate. These little morsels of deliciousness are paniyaram, flavoured with spring onions and herbs, served with tomato chutney.

We stayed two nights at The Bangala in Karaikudi. It was the first heritage property to be restored and converted to a hotel, (in 1999 by it's original owners). It is known for it's cuisine, with Madame Meyyappam (now 84) co-authoring a cookbook The Bangala Table. The book was too heavy to carry home (we travel very light) so I've bought a copy on Amazon and anticipate the arrival. They do offer cooking classes in the kitchen pictured below. We didn't really have long enough to take one. There is no a la carte menu, you can have the traditional thali for lunch, or a four course set menu for dinner. We couldn't contemplate dinner the first night after our food fest at Chidambaram Vilas, but did manage the second night. They offer a fusion Western/Indian dinner. The first course was a broccoli cream soup with very good baguette (no photo). The second course was prawn masala, sautéed mushrooms, strawberry and beetroot salad with paratha. The main was quail in gravy, vegetable masala, dal and fragrant rice. Dessert was trifle (no photo). Beautiful period details abound here.

Ha ha @Nyleve Baar, the street food tour is coming up soon !

The current batch of olives, brining away. Didn't lift a finger for these, our house/dog sitter sorted them while we were OS. They'll be ready to try in a couple of weeks.

I've never eaten a wedge salad either, although I love icebergs so perhaps I should try one....nah. Thai green curry with chicken, potato and snow peas. Served with jasmine rice and mango relish.

Thank you @Smithy, we didn't get an explanation of the individual grinders, and I don't remember whether that is a depression or shadow. It could very well be for rolling small bread. I have lots of market shots coming up soon.

The left hand two columns are different lentils/split peas. The black one (top left hand corner) is urad dal, an important ingredient in the making of dosa and idly...it's soaked and ground with rice, then left to ferment. The rest are spices, cardamom, cinnamon, black pepper, cumin, fenugreek & dried chillies, all feature prominently in South Indian cooking. Wait til you see the spice plantations we visit later ! Our group is only the two of us. He who must be fed has only 0.39 days of annual leave available. So sadly, it will be at least six months before the next trip. It will feature food though wherever it is.

A special lunch of traditional South Indian thali in the Chettinad region. The venue is a beautiful colonial mansion originally built for Raman Chettiar in the early 1900's. It's now a luxury hotel property Chidambaram Vilas. First a tour of the property, including the original outdoor kitchen with displays of grinding stones, the well, cooking utensils and typical spices. Lunch was served on a banana leaf, rasa soup in a silver cup, beer in a silver tankard. There were three kinds of rice, chicken in gravy, a whole fried fish, several veggies (including chokoe which was amazing), dal, pickles, chutneys, vada, and pappads. We ate with the constant attention of two young waiters watching for every opportunity to refill our leaf. Here's the main dining hall complete with Belgian chandeliers, Italian tiles, and teak ceilings, plus a gratuitous shot of the pool. Food close up.

It might be quite some time @liuzhou, while Sri Lanka is on the list, it's a very long list.

A dinner at Ideal River Resort just outside Tanjore. Pakoras with beetroot and a dipping sauce. Chicken and egg biriyani with eggplant kaikeri and cucumber raita.

It was lots of fun. We were lucky it coincided with our arrival. Driving through the crazy streets of Chennai on Sunday morning after arriving only a few hours prior, then seeing cows wearing garlands of chrysanthemums, with prettily painted horns, was quite surreal.

The guy in the striped shirt standing in front of this stall is Raja, our guide for a day in Trichy. The shop is in the huge Sri Rangam temple complex. He bought black gram cakes and sesame sweets, both wrapped in newspaper, sorry I didn't get a photo, they were delicious. After we shared lunch at PLA residence, tomato soup, followed by a veg thali with aloo paratha. Not pictured, mounds of rice. Incredibly good value at about 300 INR.

Ohh, @rotuts I bet that dinner was special. Nothing like being in someone's home eh, we did get to experience that later. Sri Lanka is on my list.

This was dinner at Hotel Gnanam in Tanjore. A spicy mutton (goat) rogan josh, pea and cauliflower khurma, cheese paratha, pappads and rice. Washed down with a gin and tonic for me, a beer for him. Alcohol was difficult to procure at times in both Tamil Nadu and later Kerala.

Back home and on to the dinner thread ! He who must be feed hasn't had a steak in three weeks, and it's too hot to be in the kitchen ! Yay for a barbie. A mixed grill of t-bone, roast pork and apple sausages, bacon, corn, mushrooms and zucchini. Served with a salad of spinach and rocket, tiny tomatoes and ripped bocconcini.

Breakfast of champions. The breads are poori and idly (a rice flour cake) served with left to right, coconut chutney, mint chutney, tomato chutney, vegetable masala and sambar. While they're called chutney, they are freshly made each day, more like a sauce. Most feature black mustard seeds, with many subtle differences of spice and taste. A variation of this was had for nearly every breakfast, say 20....Sambar is a lentil and vegetable soup/stew again varied much between cooks.

Another dinner, this time at Paradise Resort near Kumbakonam. Chicken in creamy cashew sauce, spinach paneer, paratha and rice. The might look the same, a trick of poor light, they tasted very different. These guys lived outside our room.