Idly - The South Indian Delicacy and Safe Food for Every Stomach

For those who may not know, especially outsiders from India, Idly is a food item. Round in shape it can also be described as Rice Cake. The most popularly cherished one for morning breakfast; the specialty about it is it can be served for dinner as well; and is often served hot. Hot means not only by temperature, but also the side-dishes aptly served along with it for taste.

Looking back into the history of this incredible item of food, fondly taken by millions inside India every day, the origin of idly belongs to Tamil Nadu, South India. Tamilian women have contributed an array of recipes to Indian food culture; and we can daresay idly is top of them all. From there it spread to other Southern States of Andhra, Kerala, and Karnataka; wherever South Indian families live in entire India; and many countries overseas, including but not restricted to Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore.

Rice and its derivatives are the core food all over South India, whereas Wheat and its bye-products have importance over North Indian food habits, for generations. However, in certain North Indian States like Assam and Bengal, rice gets the first priority. Thus when thinking of an ideal breakfast people think of idly.

Before going into the merits of this delicious and completely safe food, let us see how it is prepared. Boiled rice - that is the paddy before being hulled into rice is boiled to certain degrees and dried up in the sun - so as to get a variety of rice, with added taste. Normally this taste is absent in raw-rice, where it is hulled straight in the mills after drying. Boiled rice will be slightly yellowish in color and retains all the good things about rice, including carbohydrates.

Taking a measure of boiled rice, one quarter measure of urid-dhall is added; after cleaning thoroughly with water, the mixture is soaked in sufficient water for at least 4 hours, to get ready for grinding. Then it is ground - in a mixy if it is in small quantity or in special grinders for hotels where huge quantity of batter is required. The batter needs fermentation - after adding salt into it - for at least 12 hours for making soft idlies. Then this batter is poured in the special-grooved plates of an Idly-Cooker and baked on steam for just 10 minutes, to bring out hot, soft, tasty and fine-smelling Idlies.

The fermentation and added salt do the trick in making the end product as a safe food - from a child of one year, to people of old age in their nineties. There are many delicious food items - Indian Chapattis; English Bread; French Fries; Italian Pizza and so on. While these are unquestionably tasty for the tongue-buds, you cannot say they are digestible for one and all - let alone people with illness. But idly is hundred percent safe not only for digestion; it will not cause any side-effects, like other junk foods physicians are cautioning us to keep away from.

Another favorable aspect about this food item is - it can be taken with any side-dish - vegetarian like chutney or sambar (a South Indian recipe); sugar if you are allergic to hot spicy dishes; non-veg items like mutton or fish curries as you like. It is versatile food going well with Hindus, Muslims and Christians, because of this flexibility.

Idly is so popular as Indian item of cuisine that Indian Restaurants anywhere in the world will have it. Believe it - there are exclusive shops for serving Idlies (along with other items of Indian origin) all over Tamilnadu and they have branches at Singapore. Madurai is an important tourist center of Tamilnadu filled with temples and nicknamed as Temple City - where you can see milling crowds visiting that place from foreign countries - are falling for the splendid taste of idly and its side-dishes.

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