Kochi & Central Kerala · Western Coastal Strip
The small things
- The leaf points leftA sadya is served on a banana leaf laid with its tip to the diner's left. Each item has a fixed spot — pickles and thoran at the top left, rice in the centre — and is served in a fixed order. Folding the leaf towards yourself at the end signals you enjoyed the meal; folding it away is a funeral convention.
- KollavarshamKerala keeps its own calendar era, counted from 825 CE. Chingam is the first month, Karkidakam the last and leanest — the monsoon month traditionally given over to Ramayana reading and Ayurvedic treatment.
- Houses have names, not just numbersA Malayali address is usually a house name — the "veedu" or "illam" — carried across generations and often used as a surname. Ask someone where they are from and you may get a house.
- Red rice, not whiteEveryday Kerala rice is matta — parboiled, red-brown, coarse and faintly nutty. It holds up to curry in a way polished white rice does not, and visitors usually notice it before anything else.
- A mirror without glassThe Aranmula kannadi reflects off the front surface of a metal alloy, so there is no faint second image behind the glass as in an ordinary mirror. Look closely at a household mirror afterwards and you will see the ghost you never noticed.
- Toddy shops have a cuisineThe kallu shappu is a licensed toddy tavern with its own kitchen and its own canon — kappa and meen curry, duck roast, beef ularthiyathu, clam fry — hotter and simpler than restaurant food and often better.
- The performer becomes the deityOnce a Theyyam performer's face is painted and the mirror is handed to him, he is addressed as the deity, not as himself. Villagers including those of higher social standing seek his blessing — a temporary and very old inversion.
- Nendran, and only NendranKerala banana chips are made from the unripe Nendran plantain, sliced into hot coconut oil directly over the pan. Any other banana gives a different chip, and locals will tell you so.
- The monsoon starts here officiallyThe India Meteorological Department declares the onset of the Indian southwest monsoon based on rainfall over Kerala, conventionally around 1 June. The whole country's agricultural year is dated from a coastline 580 km long.
Small local details of Kochi & Central Kerala — customs, quirks and things that are not in any guidebook. (9)