The Food

South Indian food mainly contains; rice, lentils and semolina based dishes. Fish features strongly in non vegetarian food and coconut, mustard seeds, curry leaves and red chillies are widely used as flavorings.

Adai: fermented rice and lentil pancakes.

Avial: A mixed vegetable curry from kerala with a coconut and yoghurt sauce. Literally a mixture in malayalam.

Biriyani: a more creative version of rice and curries . It is a meal in itself, and is very often served in marriage feasts.

Bonda: Spiced mashed potatoes dipped in chickpea-batter and deep fried.

Dosai or Dosa: thin, shallow fried pancake, often sculpted into interesting shapes ;very thin once called paper dosa. Most of them are made with fermented rice and lentil batter , but in rava dosai, cream of wheat semolina is used.

Masala dosai: dosa comes with a spicy masal filling . All vegetable dishes are served with a sambar and chammanthy or chutney .

Gobi: Cauliflower marinated in spices , then dipped in chick pea flour batter and deep fried. It is usually lurid pink due to the addition of food colourings.

Idli: steamed sponges of ground rice and lentil batter. Eaten with sambar and coconut chutney.

Kadala: Black chick peas curry .

Kalan: A thin curry from the Southern states made from yoghurt , coconut and mangoes.

Kappa: casava root traditionally prepared with coconut and chilli served with kadala.

Kootu: A mild vegetable curry in a creamy coconut and yogurt sauce.

Molee: A mouth watering kerala fish curry with coconut milk.

Rasam: consomme made with lentils; it tastes both pepper hot and tamarind sour.

Thoran: vegetables stir fried with mustard seeds, curry leaves , chillies and fresh coconut grated.

Uppuma: A popular breakfast dish in which onions, spices and occasionally , vegetables are cooked with semolina using a risotto like technique

Courtesy: time out Eating and Drinking guide 2008