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| “Once there was a time when the whole world was enamored of the fragrance of Kerala.” |
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| The south west state of Kerala lies on the Malabar Coast of India, a beautiful tropical region made up almost entirely of inland waterways, coconut groves and spice plantations. |
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| Kerala has traded its spices – cardamom, ginger, turmeric and black pepper – with Arab, Chinese and European merchants for thousands of years. As Sugatha Kumari, a Keralite poet and ecologist, said: “Once there was a time when the whole world was enamoured of the fragrance of Kerala”. |
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| Because of the diversity of people coming into and setting in Kerala over the centuries, the region has an open attitude to visitors and a powerful mix of religions. Kerala was the first place in the world to freely to elect a communist government (and vote it out several years later). It has India’s lowest birthrate and its highest literacy rate, and probably the highest concentration of poets. |
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| Rasa means taste (but not only of food), and we want you to experience a taste of Kerala’s village traditions, along with some dishes from other southern Indian states. At Rasa, we will remind you of Kerala’s traditions: the elephant parade and boat festival, and of Onam, Kerala’s greatest festival, celebrated in September with music, dance, and, of course, food. |
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| Culinary Tradition |
| In Kerala, your dishes are served on a huge fresh banana leaf, a disposable platter. Contact with your food is direct and tactile as you eat with your right hand, mixing wet into dry ingredients – a messy business for the uninitiated. |
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| No meal is complete without a selection of pickles and chutneys to add piquancy (in Kerala, these are placed top left on the leaf), rice to fill you, a very liquid dal (spiced cooked lentils) to moisten dry dishes, some yoghurt to cool the more fiery curries, and a selection of crisp savories. |
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| Not surprisingly, these dishes are often made from bananas, as Kerala has over 250 types, from bright green through every shade of yellow to clay pink. |
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| To complete a feast, there may be bananas cooked in raw sugar syrup, scented with cardamom from Kerala’s cardamom hills in the east, or a sweet pudding with raisins and cashew nuts, since Kerala is the cashew capital of India. |
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