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The culinary of Indian cuisine has
developed over thousands of
years. The
Indian Cuisine in both vegetarian
and Non Vegetarian Indian food,
has an unmatched charm because
of the extravagant spices,
thus India is better understood as
"HOME OF THE SPICES". The art
of preparing authentic Indian food
involves the delicacy and mixing
of the right spices in right
quantities. India is a land of
diverse religions, customs,
festivals, culinary flavors and
climatic conditions. Thus each part
of India has added and enhanced
the flavor of its dishes by blending
spices, herbs and condiments to
make the dish more exquisite,
exotic and heavenly.

"To indulge in Indian cuisine
is to enjoy a glimpse of
heaven and an unforgettable
culinary experience." -Chef
& Author Komal Taneja

The culinary efforts of the
different communities of Kerala
come out in
distinctly different dishes of great
variety. While Hindus specialise in
delicious vegetarian food such as
sambar, rasam, olan, kaalan,
pachadi, kichadi, aviyal and
thoran.The Muslims and Christians
excel in
non vegetarian cuisine.

The pathiri, a sort of pancake
made of rice flour, and biriyani
which is a
mouthwatering dish of rice cooked
with meat, onions, chillies and
other spices are Muslim culinary
delights. Christians have
interesting recipes to make an
array of fish dishes such as meen
pollichathu, fish molee
and so on. Christian cookery
specially caters to people with a
sweet tooth –
crunchy kozhalappam, achappam,
cheeda and churuttu.

A typical Kerala breakfast may be
puttu, which is rice powder and
grated coconut steam cooked
together, idli and sambar, dosai
and chutney, idiappam (string
hoppers), or the most delicious of
them all, the appam. Appam is a
kind of pan cake made of rice
flour fermented with a small
amount of toddy (fermented sap
of the coconut palm) which is
circular in shape and edged with a
crisp lacy frill. It is eaten with a
chicken or vegetable stew. Kanji
(rice gruel) and payaru (green
gram),
kappa (casava) and fish curry are
traditional favourites of Keralites.

Almost every dish prepared in
Kerala has spices added to it –
spices such as cinnamon,
cardamom, ginger, cloves, garlic,
cumin, coriander, turmeric etc.
Spices are used in Kerala to tone
up the system the way wines are
in western cuisine. The juice of
tender coconut is a refreshing and
nutritious thirst quencher. Kerala
cuisine also has a medley of
pickles
and chutneys. And the crunchy
papadams, banana chips and jack
chips can bring a smile any day.