Exploring age-old restaurants on a tiffin trail in Tamil Nadu

Where to find crispy dosas, comforting poriyal and piping hot Filter coffee in Chennai, Madurai and Coimbatore

The word tiffin is synonymous with a lunch box. In Tamil Nadu, though, it is an integral part of breakfast and snack menus at age-old restaurants.

Ram Bhat, a managing partner at Chennai's vegetarian premium dining space Mathsya, prefers to describe tiffin as "short eats". He says, “In Chennai, a tiffin menu typically has snack items like medu vada, ribbon pakoda (deep-fried, ribbon-shaped snack made with rice flour), bonda (deepfried snack of spiced potatoes and gram flour batter) and bajji (deep-fried gram flour fritters). It varies from home to home and even restaurants. Today,gobi manchurian and paneer pakodas are served as tiffin items to cater to a cosmopolitan palate." A full-fledged meal in the morning is not uncommon in a Tamil home. Food historian Rakesh Raghunathan recollects tiffins prepared by his amma. "We were served a meal of sambar, rasam, rice and poriyal,and sent to school in the morning.

The tiffin in the evening which was served piping hot was more exciting. It had pongal, bonda, bajji and vada." There are multiple theories tracing the origin of the tiffin concept in Tamil Nadu.