Kerala has a distinctive cuisine, very unusual and different from the rest of India. Cooking in Kerala is all about discovery, aroma and colour. Kerala cuisine is very hot and spicy and offers several gastronomic opportunities to those willing to experiment with the local dishes |
The typical Keralite loves his rice, especially the rich, unpolished brown variety called Chembavu. Rice is, in fact, the staple food of Kerala. Apart from being consumed boiled along with a variety of vegetarian and non vegetarian dishes, rice is pounded into flour and used to make delicacies like Puttu, Iddilli, Dosa, the round spongy vattayappam, the lacy-edged palappam, the pancake like kallappam, the sweet unniyappam, idiyappam that looks like fine noodles, and the stuffed ball called kozhukotta. And then, there is the pathiri, chapathi-like bread that comes in different size, shapes and tastes. The thin plain variety is called vattipathiri, the box type is pettipathiri and a sweet cake, Chattipathiri. There are also pathiris stuffed with beef, chicken, mutton and fish. Except from the Brahmins who are strict vegetarians, most Keralites eat meat and fish |
