Introduction to Kerala Food

Food in Kerala (Malayali food please, not Keralan) depends both on area - South versus North Kerala, backwaters versus the hills - and community: Moplah (Muslim), Syriani (Christian) and different Hindu communities.

Many things are common like the use of coconuts, fish and rice, but other things can be quite different - obviously something like beef which is a big feature of Syriani food would not be eaten by Hindus - but I also find less known differences. For example, the Thiyya community from North Kerala , is totally obsessive about shellfish like kalamakai (mussels). No one from South Kerala ever seems to eat them which is perhaps for geographical reasons - rocky coasts versus sandy beaches.

 One of the interesting points of difference between communities  is their differing use of breads all based generally on rice flour: appams and iddiappams for Syrianis, pathiri for Moplahs, nai-patthal for Thiyyas, appams and puttu for Nairs, dosas and puttu for Namboodiris. These are well worth trying since most of them would be hard to get outside Kerala. Another Kerala staple is tapioca which can be very good cooked there (and only there).

In Cochin and the backwaters the cult fish to try is karimeen or pearl spot, a quite beautiful really estuarine fish. Otherwise you'll get the usual seer, a big meaty fish which tends to dominate fish cooking in South India. Even in Bombay, where pomfret rules, followed by rawas and surmai, you'll get more variety than you get in restaurants in South India. But I mustn't get into a rant on this.

Moplah cooking is among the best in Kerala, and relatively easy to get since many Moplahs have started restaurants. Their biriani is famous, if you like biriani (I don't). They have interesting Arab influenced dishes like harisa, which is their version of the stewed wheat and meat concept that becomes haleem in Hyderabad and khichada in North India. They have lots of lesser known things like mutta-malas, egg yolks cooked in sugar syrup and pulled into strings.

Syriani spiced beef (erachi olathiyathu) is wonderful. The authentic version will be dry fried and spicy, but not explosive and usually cooked with hard chips of coconut. Totally addictive stuff. Meen vevichadu is their fried fish, which  varies a lot

Hindus usually eat fish as well, and its always pretty good, whatever the version. Two vegetarian dishes that I totally gorge on  are kalan, made from green bananas cooked with yoghurt and coconut oil and olan, made from pumpkin and beans cooked in coconut oil (if you don't like coconut oil, and some people hate it with a passion, you're going to have a hard time in Kerala).

To some extent communities are located in different geographical areas, so you can look out for community specific dishes depending on where you are. Kottayam is the Syriani heartland, Kozhikode is the Moplah heartland, Kannur is Thiyya territory and so on. Also look out for the small snacks that are well worth eating like achappams, deep fried flower shaped cookies, pottiyappams, diamond shaped cookies, banana and tapioca chips of all kinds.
 

Archived  and editted from e-Gullet.com at address ' http://forums.egullet.com/index.php?act=ST&f=40&t=26334&' by posted by vikram