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Cuisine
Diverse religious and cultural tradition is reflected in Kerala's
Cuisine. Sea food and coconut are some unique items that you will find in
Kerala food. Rice is the staple diet of keralites.
 Rice,
or rather unpolished rice, is the main food of the Keralite. Aside from the boiled
product eaten as a staple, there is also a wide range of snacks and breakfast
fare made of the cereal. Pounded into flour, it gives shape to the bamboo formed
puttu, the round spongy vattayappam, the lacy edged palappam, the pancake-like
kallappam, the sweet uniappam, the idiappam that looks like fine noodles, and
the stuffed ball called kozhikotta. And then, there is the pathiri, chapatti-like
bread that can be made into a plain thin one called vatipathiri, a box type pettipathiri
and a sweet cake-Chattipathiri. Pathiris are also stuffed with beef, chicken or
mutton and fried, or steamed when filled with fish.
From time immemorial,
the coconut tree has been an integral part of life for the people of Kerala and
nowhere is this more visible than in their food. These people put to good use
whatever the land offers and the result is a marvelous cuisine that is simple
yet palate tickling.
Except for the Nambudiris who are strict vegetarians,
Hindus of other castes eat both meat and fish as a matter of course. However,
they do not serve non-vegetarian food on important days, though for the other
communities no festive occasion is complete without it. It is the influence of
the foreigners that, unlike most of the other parts of the country, beef is quite
popular in the state.
The high ranges of the state boast of vast plantations
of cardamom, pepper, nutmeg, tea and coffee while in its lower elevations there
are clove, ginger and turmeric. The midlands have paddy fields, tapioca, all sorts
of hardy vegetables such as yam, narrow, gourd, drumstick, etc. and a huge collection
of tropical fruits-banana, jackfruit, mango, pineapple and cashew. In the lowlands,
cultivation is mainly that of coconut trees and paddy.
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