Chennai Parotta Kadai

Parotta is not paratha. It is laid-out dough slapped, coiled and griddled until it separates into layers, and the sound of it being made is half the point — a parotta kadai is audible from down the street.

Veechu is the one tossed and stretched thin before cooking; nool means thread, and that one is shredded into strands. Kothu parotta is what happens to parotta afterwards: chopped on the griddle with egg, meat or vegetables and salna, worked with two blades until it is somewhere between a dish and a rhythm.

Salna is the thin, spiced gravy that comes with all of it, and the street boxes pair a parotta with salna and a small kothu in one box.