Ramasseri Idli:

Fabulous Rice Cakes from Paalakkad Gap

By Ammini Ramachandran
November 10, 2006


It was a beautiful morning. Low mist covered the tall peaks of Nilagiri Mountains at the southernmost tip of India. The sky changed from a gleaming red to a glowing orange as the sun rose. That morning I was driving down with my cousin to Ramasseri, an inconspicuous little village tucked along the Paalakkad Gap. Ahead of us, sprawling over midland-plains and mountainous highlands stretches this twenty-mile wide gap, the largest mountain pass in the mountain ranges that separates my home state Kerala from the rest of India.

Ramasseri’s claim to fame is a simple breakfast dish, soft flat breakfast cakes called Ramasseri idli. Idli is a staple breakfast dish all over south India. These soft, moist, steamed cakes are made with fermented batter made from rice and urad dal (a type of white beans similar to mung beans). They taste salty with a hint of sourness. Various accompaniments served with it enhance its taste. Traditionally idlis are steamed in stacks of Idli plates. What makes Ramasseri idli special is its shape, feather light texture and an earthy aroma acquired from steam cooking in unglazed clay pots.

The Mudaliars of Ramasseri are the traditional cooks who prepare this idli. Today restaurants from neighboring towns arrive in this village very early in the morning to collect idlis to sell at their establishments. Somehow restaurants and professional chefs have not mastered the technique of preparing this dish. They still continue to buy them from local homes in this village.

As we drove through the narrow dirt road with rice fields on either side, bright green paddy stalks were waving in the morning breeze. Both palmyra and coconut palms stood tall along the roadside. We passed some bullock carts on the road and we could hear the tinkling of bells tied around the bullocks' necks. Some cart drivers were fast asleep at the helm, trusting their bullocks to pull their carts in the right direction. A few milk vendors, with their tall milk containers tied to their bicycles, were riding along the side of the road. Pretty soon we spotted a small village surrounded by paddy fields. Smoke was wafting out of the thatched roof houses. We had reached Ramasseri. ...more>