Kerala

Kerala is the spice-coast strip — Malabar pepper, cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, clove all grow here, traded with Romans, Arabs, Chinese, Portuguese, and Dutch over two millennia. Coconut grows on every roadside; the kitchen runs on coconut milk, coconut oil, and grated coconut. Christian, Hindu, and Muslim communities each have their own canon.

Sadya is the vegetarian Hindu feast — 26+ items served on a banana leaf in fixed order: rice, sambar, rasam, avial (mixed vegetables in coconut-yogurt), thoran (coconut-stir-fried greens), olan (white-pumpkin-coconut), kalan (yam-mango-coconut), pachadi, payasam (jaggery-coconut sweet). Eaten with the right hand.

Meen Curry (Malabar fish curry with tamarind, coconut milk, kokum, kudampuli) is the Christian-coast emblem. Karimeen Pollichathu is pearl-spot fish marinated, wrapped in banana leaf, pan-grilled. Appam (lacy fermented-rice-and-coconut pancake) with stew or duck curry is the breakfast. Puttu (steamed rice flour in cylinder, layered with coconut) with kadala curry (chickpea) is the other breakfast. Beef Fry (ironic in Hindu India — Kerala has the highest beef consumption) and Malabar Biryani (Muslim Mappila version with short-grain khaima rice) round out the meat side. Banana chips fried in coconut oil.