The Delicacies of Kerala

The best part of travelling across Kerala is that one never has to eat the same typical food everywhere. You can tantalise your taste buds in every region in Kerala as every district has its own mouth-watering sumptuous delicacies which must not be missed at any cost. Almost all of the dishes are made up of rice followed by coconut and tapioca while the spices add exquisite flavours to the food which is finger-licking good. Food is cooked only in coconut oil and mostly served on banana leaves. People can here eat par-boiled rice which is called Choru in the native language, which is believed to be very nutritious.

Breakfast forms the most important part of Kerala cuisine which has savoury and yet appetizing dishes. The healthy breakfast usually consists of the following dishes:

The world famous –Idlis, Dosas and Medu wada served with traditional Sambar and coconut chutney,

Puttu (a steamed dish containing rice flour and grated coconut),

Appam/Palappam,

Vattayappam (steamed rice cake made up of rice flour and coconut milk),

Ari Pathiri (thin rice roti)

Kadala Curry (made up of black chickpeas)

Idiyappam (string hoppers made up of rice flour, salt and water which is served with curry like potato, egg, fish or meat and coconut chutney)

The lunch of Keralites is very elaborate and extravagant which is called Sadya. It is a traditional vegetarian meal served on banana leaf. It has par-boiled rice served with curries, side dishes, savouries, pickles and desserts.

Curries: Parippu, a liquid curry made up of small gram and ghee, Sambar, Rasam, Kottucurry made up of diced potatoes laced with onions and green chillies.

Side dishes: Aviyal it is a blend of vegetables, coconut paste and green chillies which is seasoned with spoonful of coconut oil and curry leaves which are added after the Aviyal is off the stove. Thoran consists of minced string of beans, cabbage, radish or grams. The spice is added by red chillies and the sweet taste by grated coconut which is just delicious! Olan: Pumkin cubes and red grams cooked with thin gravy of coconut milk

Savouries: Upperi which is deep fried banana slices, Pappadam are wafers made up of black gram flour, Ginger Pickle.

The feast is finally wound up by serving desserts like Payasam or Pazham. Also Kaalan, which has buttermilk seasoned with ginger, turmeric and green chillies, is served.

If you are still hungry and willing to know more about Kerala’s cuisines then you must not miss on these famous evening snacks. These snacks are the real essence of Kerala’s diversity.

Sukhiyan it is one of the traditional snacks of Kerala which is available on every tea stall. It is made up of moong dal and jaggery, Vattappam, Kozhukatta this is a sweet snack specially made during Easter, it is a dumpling filled with grated coconut and jaggery. For banana lovers there are a variety of snacks which Kerala offers like Unnakkai (banana and coconut sweet snack), Mulaku bajji (fried banana), Unniappam (fried snack made up of rice flour, bananas and jaggery), Ethakka Varattiyathu (fried banana fries), Avalose/ Avilose Podi.

If you are tired of eating vegetarian food then Kerala is the ideal place to eat non- vegetarian food which not only uses chicken and meat but also has a varied collection of seafood. Malabar and Mappila cuisines offer the best non veg dishes which includes mouth-watering Chicken biryani also called as Kerala biryani, Meen Pathiri (flat bread stuffed with fish which is seasoned with spices), Kallummakkaya (mussels) curry which can be eaten with appam or parotta (flatbread). The two districts which serve Malabar and Mappila cuisines are Kozhikode and Thalassery, make it point to visit these two places to relish the heavenly dishes.

Meen Pollichathu is a dish belonging to the central part of Kerala. It is prepared by seasoning the fish with various spices, then wrapped in a banana leaf and cooked. This special delicacy is available in all restaurants in Kerala.

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