Kerala Cuisines

The cuisine of Kerala is very distinct from the usual flavours dished out in the rest of India. Cooking in Kerala is highly experimental where you always make discoveries be it related to the aromas or the colours or the flavours. People from the distant shores often landed in Kerala thus influencing the cuisine pattern of the region. So if you are also going to visit the state, make it a point to savour the local tastes.

Foreign Influences
Even otherwise, Malabar has always been known as a spice trade centre and the seafarers from distant countries such as Italy, Greece, France, China and Africa came to visit the spice coast of Malabar. There are several delightful cuisines in the repertoire of Kerala including the delectable meat and fish dishes which remind us of the many foreigners who landed on our shores. Kerala has a long long coastline as well as a rich sea life therefore if the seafood and the coconuts are inseparable part of the Malayali Kitchen – it should come us no surprise.

Usual Basic Foods
The people of Kerala usually love the unpolished rice, which is their main food. Generally the food is eaten boiled, there are other forms as well which form a wide range of snacks and breakfast fare also. Then comes the coconut tree which has an important influence on the life of the people of Kerala. The coconut is present in various forms in the cuisine of Kerala. The south India cuisine basically concentrates on preparing food that is healthy and that's precisely the reason why there is less use of oil and sugar and other artificial additives in these cuisines.
The Typical Kerala Feast
It is served on the banana leaf wherein the staple food is rice along with more than 14 vegetable dishes and all this is finished with the Payasam which is a sweet dish cooked in milk. The breakfast is usually idli, sambar, dosai and coconut chutney. Generally people tend to show a preference for the vegetarian food though non vegetarian cuisines like Pathiri and Kozhi Curry have many fans throughout the state.

Some of the popular Kerala cuisines are:
Pulaos, Pilaffs and Biryanis
These are food items consisting of meat, spices, onions etc cooked in boiled rice. It is said that this food item was brought here by the Arab seafarers.

Pootu
It is a popular breakfast dish which is prepared by rice flour lagered with grated coconut. Then some sugar is sprinkled on it with mashed bananas.

Iddlis
These are made up of yeasty rice and lentil batter and are steamed cakes which are very popular in Kerala.

Thorans
These dishes are made up of finely chopped boiled vegetables wherein some meat and sea food made also be used. These are gravy less dishes in which mustard seeds are also used to give them a pungent flavour.

Whatever dish is prepared in Kerala, you can easily be sure that it has coconut and spices to flavour it which is apparent in the sharp pungent taste (due to the presence of Tamarind) whereas coconut gives the food a unique richness that cannot be found in other parts of the world.