Kerala

 

Kerala is very famous for its elaborate breakfast food. It has been adjourned as one of the best breakfasts in the world, partly due to its high nutritional value and low oil content (http://ezinearticles.com/...). Unlike other parts of India, few non-vegetarian items are available on Kerala breakfast menus. Some of the popular breakfast items are;

Dosas

crispy fried ricebread having flavourings of butter, ghee, masala or plain.

Pidiyan

dumplings made of rice and jaggery.

Idiyappam

string hoppers - also known as noolputtu and nool-appam, taken with spicy egg curry or tomato curry.

Paal-Appam

a circular, fluffy, crisp-edged pancake made of rice flour fermented with toddy or wine, taken with chicken stew mild spiced coconut milk based gravy, or vegetable kurma a mixed vegetable curry in coconut milk gravy.

Kerala cuisine is distinctly different from food elsewhere in India. The major difference that one can easily notice are dominance of rice as staple food and popularity of non-vegetarian dishes. Seafood gets a lion's share in typical Kerala's cuisine and lavish use of coconut in form of coconut oil, coconut milk, powder or paste gives a distinct taste. Food in Kerala tends to include a variety of spices and most of them are extremely fiery. Kerala also has its own fair share of famous vegetarian cuisines and normally only vegetarian foods are taken during festival days, particularly Onam

Kerala's cuisine is divided into four basic regional styles, according to ingredient availability and historical influence: Malabar, Central Travancore, Southern Travancore, and Central Kerala. Although all four styles can be found throughout the state, the food will be most authentic within each given region.

breads & rice

Kerala doesn't have any indigenous Wheat breads in its traditional recipes, though today most of the North Indian breads like Naans, Parathas etc are more popular options. However Kerala has many unique rice-flour made breads, which is not seen much outside.

Rice Breads - Palappams Milk mixed in normal Appam batter and Kallappams Palm toddy mixed in normal appam batter.

Rice flour Breads - Pathiris a fried rice flour bread, Ghee Pathiri Pathiri baked in Ghee, Poricha Pathiri Fried Pathiri rather than baked and Stuffed Pathiris anything like vegetables, fish or chicken.

Malabar Paratha Porotta - A famous milled wheat weaved fried or toasted bread orignated from Malabar, popular throughout Kerala

Rice - Kerala's most favourite rice is called Matta rice boiled along with its barn, to make it more nutritious. Normal boiled rice, served in piping hot is regular for lunch as well as dinner. Other popular options are Ghee Rice, Fried rice, Saffron rice, Turmeric rice and Biryani rice.

sweets

Due to the lesser influence of Arab & Central Asian food on Kerala, the use of sweets is not as widespread as in North India. Kerala does not have any indigenous cold desserts, but hot/warm desserts are popular. The most popular example is undoubtedly the payasam: a preparation of milk, coconut extract, sugar, cashews and dry grapes. There are more than 18 varieties of payasam all having same base constituents and differs from others due to main ingredient. Some of the popular variants are paal payasam made with rice grains, Ada payasam with beaten rice flakes, Paripu payasam made from lentils, pazham pradhamam made from banana, gothambu payasam made from wheat grain or semiya made with vermicelli.

Other popular indigenous sweets are:

Unniappam, a fluffy deep-fried rice-bread mixed with ripe bananas similar to the Danish Æbleskiver.

Pazham-pori, plantain slices covered with a fried crust made of sweetened flour.

Kozhukkatta, rice dumplings stuffed with a sweet mixture of molasses, coconut.

Kozhikode halwa, a famous sweet confection.

Savories are extremely popular in Kerala, with fried banana chips as most preferred. Jack-fruit chips, chips made out of rice flour in various forms like achappam, kozhalappam, paka-vada, and hard balls made out of rice flour with jaggery like avilose unda are popular options.