Читать книгу Indian Cooking For Dummies - Monisha Bharadwaj - Страница 27

Kerala, which means “land of coconuts,” is one of the best places to visit if you love Indian food but want more than the usual tikka and korma. A small state with the hilly Western Ghats on one side and the azure Arabian Sea on the other, its cuisine is inspired by its 560 miles of backwaters. On the banks of these intricate waterways grow coconuts, bananas, and spices such as pepper and cardamom. The backwaters also provide Kerala’s best delicacy, a silvery-black fish called karimeen or pearlspot, which is cooked with hot spices in a banana leaf. Coconut is used in some form (oil, milk, or flesh; grated, roasted, or powdered) in almost every recipe.

Foreign influences are apparent in its cuisine here, too. Judaism and Christianity both came to Kerala many centuries ago, and modern Syrian Christians (the majority Christian population in this state) believe that the Apostle Thomas came here and baptized their ancestors. Later, the Portuguese arrived and continued the conversions, this time to Catholicism.

Early spice routes were controlled by the Arabs. Kerala being the region of India where so many were grown, it’s easy to understand how Islam was introduced to this region around the seventh century.

Today, the Kerala Christian table is laden with beef and pork stews, the Muslim one with biryanis and breads such as parottas, and the Hindu kitchen is fragrant with coconut and vegetable or fish curries.