Blog #8 – The Food

The Food:

I can’t believe I forgot to talk about the food here! South India has an abundance of rice and lentils. So the staple food here is based on these two ingredients…just prepared in many ways. Dosa, idili, plain rice, puttu, idiappam, appam, arioonda, kozhikatta, pathiri, seva, uppama, aval, and pidiyan. All of these are eaten with spicy curries, sweet syrups, or on their own. South India is known for utilizing all of its fresh vegetables, fruits, and spices.

Spices! Kerala, the state I live in, is known for its famous black pepper. The pepper here is very refreshing – it’s hard to describe...kind of sweet, but with a cool finish, unlike the heat we’re used to over in America. Kerala is also known for its coconuts. Actually, if you translate ‘Kerala’, it means Land of the Coconut Trees!