27/03/2018
South Indian rice and coconut based dishes - appam, idiyappam (also called noolputtu), and puttu go a very long way in history. They were very popular in ancient Tamil literary (which included Tamil Nadu, Kerala and parts of Karnataka). Both idiyappam and puttu were steam cooked and appam was cooked in a clay or iron pot with a curved bottom over a wood burning stove.
According to eminent Indian food historian K.T. Achaya both idiyappam and appam were dishes sold by kaazhiyar and kuuviyar - vendors od snack foods on the seashore; they are graphically described in ancient Sangam poems, Perumpanuru, Mathuraikanchi and Silappathikaram. Ancient Tamil Sangam poems date back to a period from 300 BC to 300 AD.
Malabar Xpress is now serving PUTTU SPECIALS!