PONGAL -THE DISH Dearfriends, This month Pongal (Makara sankranthi) falls on 14th.Pongal is a big festival in Tamilnadu, I thought my posting can be about thedish Pongal and related items. Pongal is prepared in front of homes in villages on samkranthi in Tamilnadu. Sincerely,
Gopala krishnan 14-1-2011 Reposted on 7-1-2020after editing and updating. R. Gopala krishnan. 1. Pongal I was not having much fascination to pongal as morningTiffin and I was thinking it as something like rice with addition during theperiod I was a bachelor. After marriage when it was prepared in home, I foundthe dish better but it did not change my opinion. While I was in Bangalore in90’s, by the time I reach the hotel late and only pongal and vadai wereavailable and not my favourite iddali, I was forced to take continuously Pongaland vadai and started a liking for it, with pure Thenga chatni. 2. What happened? After my one-month stay in Bangalore, I returned toTrivandrum, I asked my wife -why you don’t prepare pongal one day. She wasastonished a little and felt what happened to me as seen from her facialexpression. I admitted my compelled condition of taking pongal and the gradualliking while in Bangalore. 3. Ven Pongal Vadai The venpongal prepared with ghee, pepper and cashew added in plenty, frying offresh curry leaves, and served hot in 98% solid condition and pure coconutchutni and Methuvadai in addition, I started liking pongal equal to myIddali Vadai combination. However, the liking was more with Vadai and chutnialong with Pongal and not Pongal alone. 4. Trivandrum andCalicut hotels Being mostly managed by the Tamil people, pongal isavailable commonly in Trivandrum and Calicut hotels. In other places in Keralathe dish is not common. 5. Pongal and Sambar. While serving pongal, now a day both special sambar andchutni are served in most hotels and also in functions nowadays. The old pattern of serving iddali vadai has changed toserving at least 4 items during Tiffinin functions. Now there will be pongal,poori, dosai, masal dosai, oothappam, Iddali vadai, thair vadai and at leasttwo sweets during Tiffin. We can make our selection. Uppuma when things prepared are getting exhausted. The special sambar with more dhal or green dhal, and itemsadded for special taste has become Tiffin sambar more liking. A little bit ofpongal, vadai, mixture of chutni sambar has started giving more taste than withchutni and pongal. 6. Pongal with sugar orketchup/Jam. As a light refreshment, pongal with a little warming inmicrowave added with sugar or ketchup/jam is too tasty in the evenings. 7. Pongal and papad. The combination of papad and pongal too with a small amountof chutni is found tasty. The taste is more with papad. (Now a day in Tamilnaduwe get appalam cum pappadam. It is either pappadam or appalam. I do not knowthe inventor.) Update- Now most shopsdisplay pappadam in the front shelf. 8. Sarkara pongal The sarkara pongal is slightly different from katti payasamdue to ingredient of green dhal and some more items. However the taste ofvenpongal is not with Sarkara pongal. Probably the katti payasam still holdsthe upper hand. 10. Pongal and vadaicombination. I am not sure the inventor of Pongal Methuvadai vadaicombination. Without methuvadai, pongal does not get the rank. It goes to 2ndclass only. Parippuvadai / Thavala vadai is not all a combination. They reducethe rank to 3rd position. With good Thengai chutni, it goes to 1st position. 11. over taking iddali-vadai. If iddali is found hard while serving in morning Tiffin infunctions, pongal overtake iddali. If Iddali is soft, still it keep pongal in 2ndposition. Even while serving first any sweet, 2nd iddali vadai, andpongal take 3rd position. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/1952552121.399729.1609985720422%40mail.yahoo.com.
