What Are the Famous Food Items in Kerala?

Kerala, a stunningly beautiful state in India’s southwestern Malabar Coast, is renowned for its rich and diverse food culture. Kerala’s cuisine is known for its use of spices and fresh ingredients as well as its unique preparation techniques.

Kerala is known for its variety of seafood dishes such as fish curry, shrimp curry, prawn fry, and karimeen pollichathu which is a local delicacy made with pearl spot fish cooked in a flavorful masala. The use of coconut oil to fry and temper dishes gives the food a distinct aroma and flavor. Some popular vegetarian dishes include idli (steamed rice cakes), dosa (fermented rice crepes), appam (rice pancakes), avial (mixed vegetables dish made with coconut), thoran (stir-fried vegetables with grated coconut) and sambhar (vegetable stew).

The staple breakfast dish in Kerala is puttu, which is steamed cylindrical-shaped pancakes made from a combination of rice flour or wheat flour mixed with grated coconut. It is usually served with kadala curry or egg curry. Other popular breakfast items include appam, idiyappam, upma, pongal, vada and idli sambhar.

Sweets are an important part of Kerala cuisine and are usually made from jaggery or sugar instead of regular white sugar. Some popular sweet dishes include palada payasam (rice pudding), payasam (milk pudding), ada pradhaman (a thick cashew nut pudding) and kuzhalappam (rice flour spirals).

Snacks are also widely eaten in Kerala. Some must-try snacks include banana chips, pazhampori or banana fritters coated with jaggery syrup, kozhukatta (dumplings made from rice flour) and murukku which are savory spiral-shaped snacks made from lentils and rice flour.

Conclusion: The cuisine of Kerala has something for everyone; from spicy seafood curries to sweet desserts like payasam to savory snacks like murukku. These delicious dishes have become famous all over India due to their unique flavors and textures. So if you’re ever in Kerala, don’t forget to sample some of the famous food items that make this state so special!