Iddly with chutney and sambar ... a risk free, zero cholesterol breakfast...

Kerala special cuisine - Cabbage thoran

The Kerala special preparations. Mouth watering....Mathi Curry (fish)

Chemmeen Ularthiyathu - a delicious local preparation

Chemeen (Prawns) Ularthiyathu is a local prawn preparation which is really delicious. The key ingredients are prawns, onion and coconut pieces cooked along with masala. Becuase of the proximity to the backwaters, we get enough good quality prawns at affordable rates throughout the year. This dish is available in some restaurants, and it is prepared in almost every house hold in the coastal Kerala. As we move from southern Kerala to Northern Kerala, the spice levels also increases. Before the invasion of the modern dishes, amount of sweating by the consumer of the food (due to spicy food) was considered as a measure of the quality of the food. More spicy means, better food - that was the norm. Since my Mother is from Trichur (central Kerala), she cooked very spicy food, where as my Mother in law (from southern Kerala) cooks food which is moderately spicy. In Trichur (dominated by Christians), most of the men and women had the habit of having a drink at the end of the day, and they liked spicy food along with alcohol. This could be a reason for the spiciness of food from central Kerala. Depending on your spice tolerance, be proactive to mention that to the cook, else you may not be able to enjoy the food.

Breakfast at Pune, lunch at Bangalore and dinner at kochi - and an opportunity to talk to a volunteer about the World environment day.

That was a really nice experience. Took the jet airways 2 p.m flight to Bangalore. The taxi which took us from the hotel to the Pune airport did charge us extra. There was no norm for taxi charges. By the time we reached Bangalore, we were really hungry, so had some egg biriyani at the airport. One pleasant surprise was the artisan's exhibition at the airport, conducted every year, in association with the world environment day. In this video, one of the volunteers talks about this festival.



I could take some photos of the exhibits, which iam uploading here. Every year they have this festival from June 3rd onwards. It was very colorful. I could take some photographs from the flight as well. Aim uploading them as well. We boarded the 5.40 pm jet airways flight from Bangalore to kochi, which is just a one hour flight. Since it is monsoon time, the flight was bumpy. At kochi airport instead of going for a pre paid taxi, we opted for the Volvo air-conditioned bus, resulting in spending only Rs.80, instead of Rs.700. The trip was long, but not tiring. Most probably my next trip will be to sultanate of Oman. I must congratulate jet airways for their on time flights and very professional behavior. Keep it up, jet airways. 

What did we have for dinner?. Any guess?. We had puttu and kadala at the Bharath tourist home, 24 hours coffee shop, near fore shore road, Ernakulam. As usual, it was good. 

Here are some photos taken with our Canon power shot A3100 IS, a simple camera, which does it's job efficiently. 

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