Malabar food glossary

Kerala’s signature snack - thin slices of raw Nendran plantain fried crisp in coconut oil and salted, called upperi in Malayalam.

The original, most respected variety of Kozhikodan halwa: wheat starch cooked slowly with dark jaggery and coconut oil until nearly black, dense and glossy.

A layered Malabar pastry - thin crepes layered with a sweet or savoury filling, bound with egg and baked in a pot.

A dense, dark Malabar rice cake sweetened with jaggery and studded with coconut and shallots, slow-cooked in a heavy pot.

A Malabar tea-time snack: a soft rice-flour pocket filled with spiced shredded chicken, steamed and pan-finished in coconut oil.

The iconic glossy, chewy halwa of Calicut, made from fermented wheat-flour paste, sugar and coconut oil - distinct from ghee-based Tamil halwa.

A shortbread-style cookie of semolina and ghee, pressed in a wooden mould and filled with dates or nuts - an Arab sweet long adopted into Malabar bakeries.

The north-Kerala style of biryani, made with short-grain Kaima (Jeerakasala) rice rather than basmati, with a distinct layering and spicing.

Fine threads of egg yolk spun through hot sugar syrup - a Malabar sweet traditionally served with mutta surka.

A steamed egg-white cake flavoured with sugar and cardamom, traditionally served with mutta maala (spun egg-yolk threads).

A soft, thin rice-flour flatbread - the everyday bread of the Malabar Muslim table, eaten with curry.

Kerala banana fritters - ripe plantain slices dipped in a lightly sweetened batter and deep-fried in coconut oil until crisp.

Thick-cut fried Nendran banana pieces coated in jaggery spiced with dry ginger and cardamom - the sweet half of Kerala’s sadya chip pair.

A deep-fried Kerala snack of green-gram and jaggery filling coated in flour batter - a Ramadan iftar staple.

A Malabar sweet: ripe plantain mashed and shaped into a spindle, stuffed with a sweet coconut-and-nut filling, and deep-fried in coconut oil.

The defining cooking fat of Kerala, and the reason Malabar snacks taste distinctly of the coast.

Unrefined cane or palm sugar - the traditional sweetener in Malabar sweets, prized for its deep caramel flavour.

A short-grain, naturally aromatic Kerala rice - the only rice used for authentic Thalassery (Malabar) biryani, cooked without soaking for a soft, non-sticky result.

The large, firm Kerala plantain variety that is the backbone of Malabar banana snacks like Pazham Pori and Unnakaya.

The historic Malabar port city, officially Kozhikode, that gave English the word "calico" and anchors the region’s food heritage.

The Malabar tea-and-snack ritual - the late-afternoon habit of strong sweet tea served with savoury and sweet snacks.

The food tradition of the Mappila (Muslim) community of north Kerala - shaped by centuries of Arab trade and built on rice, coconut and spice.

Kozhikode's famous central shopping street, named 'Sweet Meat Street' by European traders after the halwa sold there - the historic home of the Kozhikodan halwa trade.

The Malayalam word for iftar - the breaking of the daily Ramadan fast, the busiest snack window of the Malabar year.

A spiced black tea served without milk, flavoured with cardamom, cloves and lime - an Arab-influenced Malabar drink served after meals and at iftar.