Trivandrum travel guide

Kerala meals

The complete Kerala experience—served on a banana leaf with matta rice, sambar, rasam, mixed vegetable, fish curry where appropriate, pickles, papad, banana chips, curd and payasam; traditionally eaten at noon on specific days of the week as onam sadya

Puttu kadala

Kerala's beloved breakfast combination—cylindrical steamed rice cakes layered with coconut inside a bamboo tube, served alongside black chickpea curry cooked in Kerala spices; the puttu crumbles at the touch of a finger and soaks up the curry perfectly

Appam stew

See Appam with stew—Kerala's delicate lacy rice pancakes served with mild coconut milk chicken or vegetable stew; one of South India's most refined breakfast combinations; the pale stew of pearl onions, spiced gently with cardamom, contrasts with the fermented appam edge

Seafood

India's 7,500km coastline sustains extraordinary regional seafood traditions—Bengali mustard fish, Goan prawn balchão, Mangalorean fish curry, Malabari seafood biryanis, Andaman reef fish; each coastal region's catch, cooking oil, souring agent and spice blend creates completely distinct cuisines

Payasam

Kerala's sacred dessert in multiple expressions—ada pradhaman (rice flakes in jaggery-coconut milk), pal payasam (rice in milk), pazha pradhaman (plantain); served at temples as prasad and at onam sadya; the coconut-jaggery version with cashews is irreplaceable

Filter coffee

South India's great ritual—100% arabica coffee beans slow-dripped into thick decoction, combined with hot milk in a brass tumbler and davara; poured from height to cool the temperature and create a froth; the MTR or Darshini chain version sets the standard