Nattu kozhi or broiler: why the chicken matters
Country chicken takes longer, tastes stronger and costs more. How it changes a Chettinad curry, and when farm chicken is fine.
A guide to the Sunday virundhu
Twelve dishes on a banana leaf, and the order to eat them in.
Every Sunday at lunch we serve a Chettinad virundhu: a feast on a banana leaf, the way it is served at weddings and festivals in Chettinad.
The leaf is laid with the tip to your left. Salt, pickle and a sweet go on the top left, followed by poriyals, kootu, and the dry meat dishes along the top. Rice goes in the centre, with a ladle of ghee and dal.
Start with rice, dal and ghee, then move to the kuzhambu, usually our kara kuzhambu or meen kuzhambu. The middle course is the meat: chicken varuval and mutton chukka, eaten with rice or a parotta. Next comes rasam, which helps the digestion after all that pepper, and finally curd rice with pickle. The payasam is served last, though many people taste it at the start.
When you finish, fold the top half of the leaf towards you. It tells the host you enjoyed the meal. Folding it away is the custom only at funerals, so we notice.
