Banana-leaf Lunch, Tamil Nadu, India

            Its a typical lunch time scene in hotels of Tamil Nadu, India. As you can see, the food is served in banana leaf, a traditional method in south indian culture. Hotels are usually crowded during lunch time, especially in pure vegetarian hotels because people in down south have vegetarian food during weekdays and reserve non-vegetarian for weekends. Also, veg food is cheaper and served immediately upon ordering. Unlike in western countries where people go to restaurants more to spend time with the companion over a coffee or a dinner, people over here go to restaurants just to  finish their food and get off the place. A person does not spend more than 10-15 mins to finish a heavy meal because there would be other batch of people waiting next to your table for you to get up and leave. Thats why you see so many people  here around all tables. Half of the hotels in Tamil Nadu serves only Vegetarian food since there are so many orthodox people out there who prefer eating vegetarian food in a place where the kitchen has no business with meat and poultry. The reason is, apart from those vegetarians who happened to be vegetarians due to their hindu religioustic reasons, there are other folks who never eat meat as they see it as height of cruelty, I mean, killing and eating.

Coming to banana leaf, its a conventional and very common practice in india where the food is served in banana leaf. It is considered very clean and hygienic way of having food. There is a process that every one needs to follow while eating in banana-leaf. The very end and smaller side of the leaf should lie on your left hand side and the bigger corner towards your right. The person who serves you the food should first sprinkle some water on your leaf for you to clean it before eating. Sweet is the very first thing that has to go into your leaf. Followed by table salt, pickle, fruits, wafers and minimum 3 - 5 variety of vegetable side dishes that includes vegetables that are fried, boiled, mashed and the ones that are made like gravies. 

Then there would be different varieties of curries and Sambhars served with boiled rice. There would be different people coming on to your table with different items one after the other. At the end, you will be again served some sweet which is usually made of milk and vermicellies - called paayasam in tamil. 

It might be difficult for people who come from other countries to sit and have food in a busy and crowded place as this one but still when we accept this as tradition of this country then everything would make sense. On the other hand, i have seen foreign tourists who purposefully choose a place like this to get the real feel of local culture and the life of people.

Taken in: India / Tamil Nadu / Salem (show map)

Taken on: March 27, 2014

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Camera: Canon EOS 500D, f/5.6, 1/10 sec, 11mm, ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 500D
Lens:	10-20mm
Aperture:	f/5.6
Exposure Time:	0.1 sec (1/10)
Focal Length:	11mm
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.0 (Macintosh)
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