Dosa is one of the most common breakfast items in Tamil Nadu. Served with sambhar and coconut chutney, it is a very filling and healthy dish. Dosa is made of rice flour, gram, and curry leaves. The dosa we get in Tamil Nadu is different from other regions on some ingredients used. It is the traditional dish of this state and is a must-try one as well. It is also called Dosai by some people.

Idli and Vada, collectively save breakfasts for people who are late in the mornings, almost every time! These Tamil Nadu food items complement each other beautifully and are total comfort foods. Idli is made with a mixture of urad dal and rice and looks like a small, spongy pancake once cooked and is one of the signature dishes of Tamil Nadu.

Vada on the other hand, is either doughnut-shaped or round like idli and is prepared with fermented Bengal gram mixed with curry leaf, cumin seed and mustard seed. The vada is then shaped and deep-fried giving us a crispy yet soft food served with sambar and coconut chutney.

Also called tomato rice, it is made of rice, onions, tomatoes and other ingredients. It is made in the form of a pulav.

Sambhar is made of toor daal and goes well with any kind of food- dosa, idli, rice and other dishes. A lot of vegetables are also mixed with it which makes the dish a very healthy one. If you order daal in Tamil Nadu, you will most likely get sambhar, and it is so tasty that you can never have too much of it.spicy. This dish is the most common type of rice after plain white rice which is served during lunch.

Tamarind forms the base of this soup-like dish, and added to it are tomatoes, pepper and cumin seed. The rasam is almost a pre-meal appetizer, which is light and doesn’t fill you up too much before a meal. The rasam is a famous dish that is poured over the rice like a normal curry. Though it is almost colourless, it has a burst of flavour. You can also drink it as you would a soup. It is good for a sore throat too.

Popular known as gunpowder, this is commonly served with idli or dosa. It is made of urad daal and chana daal along with sesame seeds and red chilly powder. It is mostly served in every household. You may not get it in shops and restaurants, but some restaurants do serve it. Idli with gunpowder is the tastiest thing to eat. They also add tamarind which gives it a tangy taste.

It is the easiest evening snack that can be prepared within a short time. It is made of soaked beans along with onion, chilies, and grated coconut. It is made into a salad and is usually served in the evening. It is a very healthy dish and also serves the purpose of an evening snack. This item is also the most common evening bite in Tamil Nadu.

Also known as Coconut Barfi, it is made of coconut powder or grated coconut, condensed milk and sugar. It is a very famous dessert. If you are a sweet-toothed person, you should certainly try this. Some of them are made so soft that they melt as soon as they are put inside the mouth.

It is an authentic breakfast item of Tamil Nadu. It is made of boiled rice and yellow daal and tempered with pepper, cumin seeds, and ghee. Served hot, it gives out a mouth-watering smell and forms a perfect breakfast item.

This is a staple meal during every auspicious festival of Tamil Nadu. Besides the rice and sweet milk, the dish is cooked with ingredients like cardamom, green gram, raisins and cashew nuts. According to the traditional beliefs, Pongal is cooked in open space in the sunlight, as it is dedicated to the sun god. The dish has two variants- one that’s sweet another that’s savoury which is served on banana leaves. Pongal is cooked in a colourful clay pot that’s decorated with patterns called Kolam.

Jigarthanda is a cold milk beverage and cold dessert that originated in the South Indian city of Madurai in Tamil Nadu. It translates to “cool heart” in English. It is generally prepared and served at roadside stalls as a refreshment during the Indian summer. The basic ingredients include milk, almond gum, sarsaparilla root syrup, sugar and ice-cream.

Paniyaram is a South Indian dish that’s made of steaming batter using a mould with cavities. The dish has various names in other states of south India such as paddu in Kannada and Gunta Ponganalu in Telugu. The batter is made of rice and black lentils, similar to the one used for idly and dosa. People have experimented with the dish in many ways, it can be made spicy, savoury, sweet depending on your likes. Only ingredients like jaggery, chillies, masala vary. There is a special pan that’s used to make Paniyaram. It is a pan with many small fissures. Apart from the given names, Paniyaram is also called as gulittu, gundponglu, ponganalu, guliappa, appe and so on.

Popularly known as curd rice, this is the most common and easiest type of rice to make. This dish is made of rice, curd, and cream and tempered with mustard seeds, daal and other ingredients. Lunch in Tamil Nadu is incomplete without having curd rice. It is an easy to digest dish but a nutritious one too.

This is a well-known side dish usually served with rice. The Vada is made of chana daal, red chilies, fennel seeds, and other ingredients. The curry is made of onion, tomato, ginger, and garlic where the vadas are added. The addition of curry leaves and tamarind gives it a different taste and aroma.

It is a dry chutney powder. It is made of curry leaves, daal, red chilies, pepper corns, and garlic. All the ingredients are tossed and then crushed so that it forms a dry powder. It goes well with idli, dosa, and vadas like the gunpowder. It is usually made at home and is not served in the restaurants.

‘Medhu’ in Tamil means soft. These are soft vadas (fritters) made of mainly urad daal which is crispy from outside but soft from inside. It forms a part of evening snack or starter and can be served with either sambhar or gunpowder or curry leaf powder and even tea or coffee. These are little spicy but tastes heavenly.

Made of rice, jaggery, ghee, cashew nuts and raisins, this dish is a well-liked dessert item. It is specially made for occasions like birthdays or even when people visit each other houses. Tamil people have a ritual of serving it as a dessert before the meal. It is delicious, and the addition of cardamom powder gives it a unique taste and aroma.

Also called as the turmeric-pepper milk, this is one the traditional drinks of Tamil Nadu. People drink it every day before going to bed. It also acts as a medicine and prevents the body from flu as well as a cough and cold. If you happen to stay with a Tamil family, they are bound to serve you with this.

It is a kind of dosa but is usually thicker. It can be made of different toppings like onion, capsicum, tomato, coconut, beetroot, eggs etc, but the most common and easiest type is the Onion Uthappam. The ingredients used for making this are onion, idli batter, coriander leaves and green chilies. It is served with sambhar but can also be eaten without any side-dish..

It is also known as lemon rice. It is made of rice, lemon, split black gram, mustard, red chilies, and curry leaves. It is also a common type of rice cooked in the households of Tamil Nadu. It is a comfort food, especially during summers. It is a must-try dish.

The typical tamarind rice that can be translated as ‘sour tasting dish’. There’s nothing extra that’s added to Puliodarai apart from the essential ingredients such as dried coconut seed, lentil seeds, Imli, Chataka powder, olive oil, curry leaves, mustard seeds, groundnuts, Urad dal and of course the ready to mix Puliodarai paste. Puliodarai is otherwise called as Pulihora and Puliyogare. As per traditional beliefs, turmeric powder is a symbol of auspiciousness hence the meal is cooked on special occasions and presented to God.

This is also known as dal kofta curry. It is a curry made of dal koftas or balls dipped in a tangy curry. Tamil people usually use tamarind pulp and curry leaves for making this curry which gives it a unique taste and smell. It is delicious and very light too.

As the name suggests, it is made of orange peels along with tamarind, sambhar powder, and jaggery and tempered with mustard seeds, fenugreek leaves and dry red chillies. Curry leaves also adds to the flavor. It is a kind of chutney.

As the name suggests, these are fritters made of cauliflower. Fritters are deep-fried evening snacks. This evening bite is widespread in Tamil Nadu. The cauliflower is mixed with besan(chickpea flour), chili powder and corn flour and then fried.

This is a sweet dish prepared in South India. It is made using vermicelli, milk, sugar, cardamom, ghee, saffron, chopped nuts, and orange food color. It is a type of sweet dish which is only prepared in Tamil Nadu. It is a must-try dish.

Koozh is the Tamil name of Millet Porridge that’s commonly sold by street vendors. It is made from Cumbu flour or broken rice in a clay pot. Although it is a vegetarian recipe, Koozh is also made of fish, chicken and crab. If fermented, the porridge gives you a tangy flavour. It is slowly liquified and mixed with onion, buttermilk, curry leaves and coriander leaves. The koozh is served as a side dish with raw onion, green chilly, pickles, and mango spiced with pepper and red chilli and at times with Dry fish gravy. The dish is served during Mariamman temple festivals across the rural areas of Tamil Nadu.

A parotta, porotta or barotta, is a layered flat bread of parts of Southern India, notably in Tamil Nadu and Kerala made from maida flour. This is a similar to the North Indian Lacha paratha. Parottas are usually available as street food[9] and in restaurants across Kerala, Tamil Nadu and parts of Karnataka. At some places it is also served at weddings, religious festivals and feasts. It is prepared by kneading maida, egg (in some recipes), oil or ghee and water. The dough is beaten into thin layers and later forming a round spiralled into a ball using these thin layers. The ball is rolled flat and roasted.[10] There is one more special dish made out of parotta called Kothu parotta or mutta parotta which is widely available in mostly all Chennai hotels serving parottas.

It is a popular dish in small country side hotels. The idea is to make the hard chewing parotta and also ease eating using only right hand. It is prepared by cutting regular poratha into pieces & mixing it with egg, onion, green chillies and garam masala. It is also normally made of leftover parotta and is famously had with alcoholic drinks.

Biriyani is a hugely popular food in Chennai.[13] It is a mixed rice food with meat. Variants include Chicken Biriyani, Mutton Biriyani, Egg Biriyani, Vegetarian Biryani etc. Biryani is popular amongst Muslims, and so there is a theory that the Mughals brought it with them.[14] Kushkas are Biriyanis without meat or meat removed from rice. Biryani is usually served with sour brinjal gravy (Baghara baingan) and chilled raita.

Chennai is famous for Korean foods. Some of the resturants are Aeseo Korean Restaurant Hotel Onis Maljukgeori Korean Restaurant Osaka Foods Jang won Korean and Japanese Restaurant.