Kerala Cuisine

The land of spices, Kerala is famous for mouthwatering dishes. Along with exotic beaches and wonderful back water, Kerala also attracts tourists with its culinary specialties. The cuisines of Kerala are spicy, hot and healthy. The dishes of Kerrala are generally aromic, flavored and fresh. The main ingredients of the food of Kerala are mustard seed, asafoetida, chillies, tamarind, coconut and curry leaves. Besides the traditional South India dishes the predominant elements in the cuisine of Kerala are rice and fish.

The breakfast in Kerala includes idlis, dosa, appam, puttu with filter coffee. Puttu is a steam cake prepared from rice flour and steamed in long hollow bamboo or metal cylinders. It can be have with

steamed bananas and sugar or with a spicy curry made from gram or chickpeas. Similarly appam is a soft pan cake made from fermented rice batter. It is also soft, spongy and crispy edge. Appam are generally taken with the vegetables or mutton or stew, mellowed with thick coconut milk

The main course lunch and dinner of kerala consists of fish and rice. Dried and different sea fishes take an important part in the cuisines of Kerala. The lunch includes boiled rice wilth curd or tangy rasam with various vegetables. Hot rasam is served with the meals and it really tastes superb. Another vegetarian feast in kerala is Sadya. Sadya comprises of near about 40 vegetables. These dishes are really unique in their own way. For the non veg lovers the mouth watering delicacy of Kerala is kappa a nd fish curry. This fish curry is made with garlic paste, onions and red chillies and seasoned with mustard seeds and curry leaves. It is not to be missed items in Kerala. Traditional Kerala food is incomplete with out different types of chutny. Smilarly the famous snacks of kerala are banana chips and crunchy rice flour cookies.

No food is complete with out sweets. The dessert or sweet dish in Kerala is payasam, made of thick milk , rice, grated coconut and different types of dry fruits. Rich payasam with rice wafer is a ultimate dish in Kerala.

The popular dishes of Kerala are

• Dry fish curry

• Meen peera

• Masala fried fish

• Chili garlic prawns

• Finger prawns

• Duck mappas

• Stuffed chicken 'Kerala style'

• Mutton coconut fry

• Fish Moilee

• Malabar mutton biryani

• Tender coconut soufflé

• Chiratta puttu and cheru payar

One special characteristics of the food of Kerala is that these are served in banana leaf and eaten with hand. There is a special way of serving the different dishes in the banana leaf. In a word the the cuisines of Kerala offers a gastronomic opportunity.