Top 12 Kerala food items – try it from God’s own country.

Top 12 Kerala food items – try it from God’s own country. Truly all of us like travelling, especially to places where we can enjoy something special. A lot of people are fond of the natural beauty of places, whereas some others love to visit historical places. But, without any doubt, we can say that there is one common interest to all of them. And that is nothing else, but the special food popular in particular places.
Of course, you will love to visit Kerala again and again, if you happen to taste it’s unique delicacies. Hence you must try the veg as well as non-veg dishes, on your visit to this beautiful place.

Here, I will try to introduce a few delicious food items popular in Kerala.

1. The Sadya

It is the traditional vegetarian meal, preferably lunch, served on a cut banana leaf with boiled rice and a lot of side dishes. People of Kerala prepare the sadya on special occasions like festivals and functions like weddings, house warmings etc. Almost all restaurants and hotels in Kerala prepare sadya during the Onam festival season. You can try the delicious sadya if you visit Kerala during that time. Usually it falls in the Malayalam month chingam, between the mid August and September.
Also you can have the most famous sadya of Kerala from the Sri Krishna temple at Aranmula, in the Pathanamthitta district. It is the main offering to Lord Krishna, which is popularly known as Vallasadya. Surprisingly, sixty four side dishes are served along with boiled rice on the cut banana leaf.

2. Tapioca and fish curry.

Tapioca cooked along with a little coconut, will make a wonderful combination with spicy hot Kerala fish curry. Really Tapioca was once considered as the poor man’s diet. But now it has got an important place in the menu of almost all restaurants in Kerala. Tapioca and fish curry, especially sardine, is a healthy, balanced and nutritious diet, that is comparatively cheaper.
In addition to hotels, you can try it from toddy shops that serve a wide variety of non veg dishes. Truly tapioca and fish curry, with a glass of toddy, the sweet sap taken from the coconut palms, is very famous in Kerala.

3. Palappam and chicken stew.

It is one of the most popular breakfast items of Kerala. We can make Palappam with the batter prepared by fermenting rice flour and coconut. Usually the palappam chicken stew combination is served as the second course, for non veg dinners. Also you can have palappam with egg curry or vegetable stew, that is equally delicious.Appam and egg curry.

The recipe for making appam is somewhat similar to that of palappam. But the consistency of the batter and the pans we use for making these two, are different.

4. Puttu and kadala curry.

 Puttu is the steam cake made with rice flour and coconut, in a special long vessel called Puttu Kutti. For making this, first fill the puttu kutti with moist rice flour and coconut.  Then place it on the pressure cooker knob for steaming. Kadala ( chick pea ) curry  makes a wonderful  combination with puttu. Definitely you will love this delicious breakfast.
Moreover, you can try non – veg dishes like chicken or beef curry along with puttu, that is also tasty.

5. Chicken dishes

Fried Coconut chicken, is one of the most delicious dishes in Kerala. It is a dry dish prepared with fried coconut powder and spices. Usually we use shallots for this preparation instead of onions. You can have it with boiled rice, chappathis or tapioca.

6. Fish dishes.

 We can make a lot of delicious dishes with karimeen, the green chromide, which is also the state fish of Kerala. Surely you can have it from most of the restaurants. Also karimeen pollichathu, karimeen Moli, etc. are the important dishes served in house boats.

In addition to that, seer fish curry, pomphret masala etc. are also popular.

7. Duck roast.

If you visit Kumarakom or Alleppey, certainly you can try the delicious duck roast. Most of the restaurants serve Kuttanadan duck roast, which is very popular in the central parts of Kerala.

8. Sea food dishes, most important among top 12 Kerala food items.

 The western boarder of Kerala shares the shores of Arabian Sea. Hence, sea food is an unavoidable item in the menu of the restaurants in Kerala. There are wide variety of dishes with prawns, crab, squid etc.you can try.Some of the most delicious sea food dishes are:Prawn masala. For this, medium sized prawns are cooked with spices. Really the unique taste of the dish is due to the thick coconut milk that we add to it.Crab roast. The important spices for this recipe are black pepper and fennel seeds.

 

9. Beef roast, one of the top 12 Kerala food items.

Kerala style Roasted beef is another special dish you will definitely love. It will make a wonderful combination with porotta, which is very popular.

 

10. Traditional Kerala sweets.

Kozhukkatta.  Rice flour, jaggery and coconut are the main ingredients that we use to make this sweet. This steam boiled sweet is healthy as well as delicious. In the northern parts of India a sweet similar to this, called modaka is the main offering in Ganesha temples. Ila Ada.

The ingredients are same as that of kozhukkatta, but the way of preparation is a little bit different. For making this sweet, keep the coconut jaggery mixture inside the flattened dough on a piece of banana leaf.Pazham pori.
For making this sweet, first cut banana into thin slices. Then dip the slices in sweetened rice or wheat flour batter, and fry in pure coconut oil.Neyyappam.

The main ingredients for this delicious sweet are, rice flour jaggery and coconut oil.
 All these sweets are available in bakeries or village tea shops.

11. Crispy tea time snacks.

Chips fried in coconut oil with raw banana, tapioca, raw jack fruit etc. are Kerala’s most popular snacks. Certainly you can buy these chips from bakeries in Kerala. Likewise, the banana chips of Kozhikode, is very famous.

Kuzhalappam.
 This snack has got the name, from it’s shape, because Kuzhal in Malayalam means a pipe.
However it is a very tasty snack, and the kuzhalappam of Ann’s bakery, Kottayam is famous.

12. Payasam and Prathaman, delicious sweets among top 12 Kerala food items.

These sweets, preferably in the liquid form, are the final item for sadya.  We make it on special occasions like birthdays or other such functions. During the onam season you can buy different types of payasam from, the vegetarian restaurants in Kerala. Above all, the world famous Pal payasam, is the main offering for the deity at Sri Krishna temple, Ambalapuzha.Therefore, visit Kerala, God’s own country with family, on your next vacation. Try the above delicacies that you will enjoy definitely.