Santhakai

Santhakai is a local name for Sevai, a type of rice noodles. This name is popular in the western regions of Tamil Nadu, comprising districts like Coimbatore, Erode, Salem, etc. Even minor variants (corrupt/modified forms) of this name are prevailing too. Santhavam, Santhavai are a few of these. In Tamil, these are written சந்தைக, சந்தவம், சந்தைவ.

This form of rice noodles is unique in the following aspects:

*Made from parboiled rice against raw rice for Idiyappam
*Making process starts with wet grinding of soaked rice into fine dough, against powdering of rice into a flour.
*Steam-cooking of dumplings made out of this dough and pressing through a perforated plate, against pressing (extruding) the dough first and then cooking.

ee also

*Rice noodles