The pride of Chennai

On Idlis and dosas-- Idlis and dosas are the pride of Chennai from ancestral times.Idlis are round, oblong or semiflatenned rugby ball, white rice cakes made from black bean and rice in a magical combination, presoaked separately and ground in a traditional, stone grinder- Grandmas and mums all around Chennai will vouch that nothing can ever replace the stone grinder - no summeet blender or even the special made 'wet' grinder( advt extensively these days) can replace the all stone contraption, that reminds one of the relics of the Vindyas to say the least! It is all stone crucible , about 2 feet in height and 3 feet wide etched to give it ragged edges and ablong stone grinder similarly etched which looks like a 'mehair" if you read Asterix comics - Obleix carries it all the time- and then the soaked mixture of black bean and rice goes into it and the stone grinder is manually rotated over the stone crucible little by little - every household in south india has it or atleast the middle aged and older one. Dosas are white, crisp pancakes made from the same ingredients but the batter is fermented longer - Idlis and dosas are eaten with fresh cocunut chutney and sambar- and ofcourse the homemade favorite - malga-pudi - this is made from dried hot red chllies ground with dal and then when you put it on your plate - you make a small hill of it and make a small crater on it into which goes edible oil and the whole think is mixed - yummy . My nephew Ashish Premkumar who studies in Canada likes it so much , he eats the pudi with almost everything - not just idlis /dosas- it goes into his bread,chappati -brown bread, pasta, rice - you name it and the pudi is in it !!!!!