Karaikudi has been all about Chettinad food and palatial houses.
Our stay was at Visalam, which has been built in Art Deco style and was a gift from a father to his daughter on the occasion of her marriage.
Most houses in the Chettinad are two storey structures with a central court which is sky lit. The court is flanked by 5 rooms on each side and each of these rooms leads to an inner room which is ventilated from the street side.
There are ornate pillars, balustrade, flooring patterns embellished doors and windows. There is a mellow quality in the court due to warm filtered light. This area used to be the hub of activity for a large family that lived there and very little time used to be spent in individual quarters.
All houses follow the same layout, the scale varies based on the affluence and size of the family. The Athangudi palace, the Chettinad palace, our hotel….
Most of the flooring tiles are indigenous to Chettinad- the Athangudi tiles. We visited a tile making factory. It is difficult to imagine that this small scale industry supplies tiles as far as Malaysia and other countries in the far east!
There is an ancient rock cut Shiva temple on the outskirts of Karaikudi called Thirumayam temple where the sanctum sanctorum has been wedged under a rock. The temple complex is at the base of the fort and is actually a part of the outer wall of the old fort.
We tried all the local cuisine and it is very different from what passes off as Chettinad food elsewhere. Very flavourful, full of mild spices and very very different, and not overly spicy, which has always been the impression. Most of the food was freshly prepared, after we placed our orders and it was absolutely yummy!
For more pictures, please click https://photos.app.goo.gl/QNq9Yf3zKYadHWi1A
Wide Angles 