Indian rice noodles are called sevai (or idiyappam). In terms of major South-Indian food types, sevai/idiyappam is a prominent category. These rice noodles are thin, delicate strands that are fluffy, airy, and very versatile, because they take on the flavors that you add to them. So there are so many different flavors that can be infused into the noodles, and they all taste good.
If the long strands of coiled noodles are served as such, it is called Idiyappam. When the long strands are broken to short strands and flavored with some seasoning, it is called sevai. Sevai is commonly had during certain religious days when people take a break from regular meals. Idiyappam is an extremely common breakfast food in most parts of South-India, especially in the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
It's amazing that almost every culture has its own version of starchy noodles. The interesting fact about noodles is that it's a great way to economize on raw ingredients. In this case, rice. I find it incredible that home-cooks and women who'd been in kitchens all their lives had the ingenuity to come up with a series of labor-intensive processes to effectively convert rice into noodles. So, this is yet another dish that was on my to-blog list for a really long time. And every time, I put it off because I am hesistant of the manual labor required of this dish.
