A typical meal (called Saapadu) consists of rice with other typical Tamil dishes served on a banana leaf which gives different flavor and taste to the food. A sweet, normally Paayasam is usually served as a dessert to finish the meal. Coffee and tea are the staple drinks.
‘Virundhu’ meaning ‘feast’, when guests are invited during happy ceremonial occasions to share food. For festivals and special ceremonies, a more elaborate menu with steamed rice, variety rice (e.g. tomato rice), dal, sambar (lentil stew), kara kuzhambu (spicy stew with a coconut base or dal base), rasam (tamarind stew with other herbs and spices), thayir (curd) along with poriyal (dry fry of vegetables), varuval (oil fry of the vegetables or meat), kootu (vegetables mixture with green dal or coconut), keerai masiyal (ground greens), aviyal (a mixture of cooked vegetables, finally added with buttermilk or curd in the preparation), pachadi (salad of cucumber, or onion in curd), appalam (fried papads), thogaiyal (wet ground paste of some item), oorukai (pickles), payasam (sweet liquid of many varieties with milk base or coconut milk base or dal liquid base). After the completion of the feast, a banana and betel leaves (eaten with areca nuts and limestone paste with are provided to aid digestion.
Guests sit on a coir mat rolled out on the floor and a full course meal was served on a banana leaf. Nowadays, guests often sit at a dinner table and have the same type of food. Traditionally the banana leaf is laid so that the leaf tip is pointed left. Before the feast begins the leaf is sprinkled with water and cleaned by the diner himself even though the leaves are already clean. The top half of the banana leaf is reserved for accessories, the lower half for the rice. The lower right portion of the leaf may have a scoop of warm sweet milky rice Payasam, Kesari, Sweet Pongal or any Dessert items. While the top left includes a pinch of salt, a dash of pickle and a thimbleful of salad, or a smidgen of chutney. In the middle of the leaf there may be an odd number of fried items like small circles of chips either banana, yam or potato, thin crisp papads or frilly wafers aruna Appalams and vadai. The top right hand corner is reserved for spicy foods including curry, hot, sweet, or sour and the dry items.