There are a few very common choices for breakfast in Tamil Nadu. Here’s what I ate one morning:

Sambar is a soup made with vegetables and lentils and spices. It is very popular here, and everyone makes it a little differently. For this breakfast, I ate it poured over idly, which are very soft, fluffy, porus cakes made with rice flour. They are slightly tangy and soak up the sambar like a sponge.

If you like, you can pour sambar over the vada, which is in the shape of a donut but is savory, with minced vegetables and spices mixed in. Vada has a very crisp outer shell.

The coconut chutney is as ubiquitous as the sambar here, but be warned that it is sometimes spicy!

The rava kesari is sweet, with cashews or rasins mixed in sometimes. I think it is a nice way to end the meal.