பூங்கார்

Poongar is a smaller-grained red rice with a long-standing place in Tamil women's diets - traditionally given to new mothers, and to girls at puberty, as part of customary post-natal and coming-of-age cooking. Families who keep those customs still ask for it by name.

The grain is finer than Kattuyanam and softer in the mouth than Mappillai Samba, which makes it the gentlest introduction to red rice for anyone who finds unpolished grain heavy going. It has a mild flavour that doesn't compete with what it's served alongside.

It's grown in limited quantity, mostly by smallholders in the southern districts, so we stock it seasonally rather than year-round.