We decided to spend a few days in the the Kerala region of India essentially to check out the food, because, well, that is what we are in to, and it was tremendous. We noticed a lot of turmeric powder her, which is good because turmeric has healthful properties. There is lots fo rice here, and rice can mean vegetarian and non vegetarian  foods,both of which have a long tradition in Kerala. Meanwhile, you have to like coconut too, as these are grown and used in abundance, just ask at any of the India five star hotels you find in the area.. Many of the spices of the region include the aforementioned turmeric, cumin, cloves, a little cinnamon, coriander (one of my favorites).  Breakfast is usually hard to figure out, so accustomed to the idea of a sweet roll or pastry and coffee. I always like to acquaint myself with the local cuisine’s breakfast offerings and as pleased to report an interesting puttu made of coconut and powered rice. We got a little lesson from Mrs. Vasnhi who told us not to to over water the rice powder, and that if we rolled the puttu into a roll like enchilada like item it was called, happily, a manipputtu. I think I will name my next dog manipputtu. Anyway, the water was added and it resembled a kind of dough, only coarse, and can be made with flour of wheat, corn and other items. She then showed us how to steam a puttu in a basket with two halves that steam the little crepe like thing. Skipping right  to breakfast, we encounter payasam, a sweet exotic (to our tastes) of nuts like cashews, coconut (lots of coconut here), dried fruit, milk. It sounds as good as it tastes. We tried too the fried bread mad of bananas, called unniappam, which I tried with kohlfi, the frozen ‘ice cream’ of India.

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