sartoric

Dinner was at Grandmas Kitchen in Thekkady. A homely warm place with an open kitchen. Chicken curry, veg masala, garlic paratha and rice, nice. Smart phones, they're everywhere.

You could be right @cdh, the guy did mention datura. I remember thinking at the time, "ah, old hippy drug. I wonder what they use it for, because there's nothing unproductive here". There definitely was allspice some where, we had never seen it growing before. I'm not sure of its relatives.

The top of the mountains is where we cross the state border into Kerala. There's more rain in Kerala, its very lush and green, with more crops and many spice plantations. We walk through one with a man who explains the growing cycle and harvesting methods for many different spices, fruit and vegetables. Here's a few.... Cardamom Cloves Nutmeg Allspice Coffee Pepper Taro Coconut palms

On the drive to Kerala with the Western Ghats looming ahead, we came across a family of goat herders. Two teenage sisters explained the methods used, while mum and dad watched. They have two different breeds, the local breed much taller. The woven huts are to shelter baby goats from winter weather. Goat (mutton) is the most popular red meat in India. It was a bit disturbing earlier in the trip to see a nose to tail enterprise on the side of the road. From trimmed whole legs hanging on a steel hook, right through to a live goat tied to the fence, with a few steps in between ... I'm such a hypocrite, I love goat, very tasty.

Umm, my guess would be a ready mix for a particular dish...maybe someone else can answer.

Go @kayb, it's fascinating. This is our second visit, hopefully there will be a third !

Our last meal in the state of Tamil Nadu, breakfast dosa with a poori and the usual accompaniments. We head towards the state of Kerala, stopping at a local market in the town of Usilampatty.

When am I ever going to be able to use the kitchen again...sigh. It's only day one of a forecast three day heatwave. Peach and turkey salad with baby gem lettuce, rocket, nasturtium leaves, spring onions and walnuts. The dressing is a preserved lemon vinaigrette, some dark German rye bread to mop. The salad was followed by a perfectly ripe Calypso mango, and because I seem to have grown a sweet tooth, a piece of Greek baklava.

Good question @Shelby, my guess would be they become cow food (maybe after a few uses).

Street food part 4. Almost exploding, we're coerced into trying some halva, sweet delicious and the final straw. Walking slowly and carefully (it's dark, it's India) back towards the car, we pass through snack street. All sorts of savoury treats packaged and ready to go. Many kinds of pappads ready to fry. Some of those sacks at the rear hold pasta, that surprised me. A jaggery stall, how I wish I could have brought some home. Shopping is a daliy event for most people. Thousands of small shops selling the same kind of stuff. Incredible. More chillies and spices, we make it to the car, home, bed.

Part 3. A short waddle to another hole in the wall which sells only parathas. The fire puts out some serious heat, the man chopping egg paratha is sweating profusely. A masala paratha, first stretch the dough a bit, spread on sauce, fold and flip. The dining hall seats eight only at two tables and is across the alley from the kitchen. The guy with the backpack is our guide, I'm in front of him and hwmbf took the photo. There are three Indian guys at the front table, we sit behind them, nearly a full house. It was very dark, the flash might have blinded this guy. Notice the ceiling with a large manhole, there's storage space up there. Plain paratha served with mutton gravy, egg paratha, and a mix of all three. Eaten with fingers of course. Not photogenic, very tasty and filling though. Somewhere along the way there was an iced coffee from another popular long term place, delicious but no shots...getting photo weary maybe. Next we hit the sweets.

Madurai street food (part 2). Another short walk takes us to Adya Ananda Bharvan, the same venue where we had our fabulous breakfast. It's a very local place, and safe for us we're told. Here we enjoyed yet another dosa, this a really good crispy one, served with sambar, masala dal, fresh chutneys. We get a lesson in eating with fingers. It's not as easy as it looks, you only get to use three fingers of your right hand. Someone famous once said "Eating with utensils is like making love wearing armour". Dough balls possibly sweet, possibly savoury. The clientele. If if you're ever in Madurai.....

Madurai city street food tour. At 6pm we are driven to meet our guide, a smart young guy who was also one of our guides this morning. There's just the three of us. Firstly we had paniyaram of two kinds in the aircon part of a huge food business. The smaller darker ones in the middle are sweet, all are served with fresh tomato, coconut and coriander chutney. These are the snacks, sweets and cake counters. A long shot of the counter below. Around the corner to a string hoppers hole in the wall. It's said to be run by the same family for more than 100 years. These are steamed snacks made with a rice flour (or millet) batter forced through something like a potato ricer in a circular motion. Once steamed, they're served on a banana leaf with coconut milk and a little sambol. Eaten with fingers.

Here's a couple...

@helenjp, you are correct, the traditional method uses rice flour diluted with water, and the women use their fingers to draw the design. I plan to replicate some at home and will use chalk. I plead tiredness for my lapse, and will sharpen up going forward. I hadn't noticed a difference in men/women out and about. It's different at night, mostly men around. Maybe it's just the photos posted so far. I did notice that most hotel/resorts/B & B's where we stayed had all male staff apart from the grass sweepers. Kerala and Tamil Nadu were vastly different in many ways, not noticeably about gender. @liuzhou, now I'm thinking about it, a rural market we visited had more women vendors.

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.