Culture & terms · Malabar food glossary
Mappila Cuisine
Also known as: Moplah cuisine, Malabar Muslim cuisine
The food tradition of the Mappila (Muslim) community of north Kerala — shaped by centuries of Arab trade and built on rice, coconut and spice.
Mappila cuisine is the culinary tradition of the Mappila Muslim community of the Malabar coast. It emerged from the meeting of indigenous Kerala cooking — rice, coconut, fresh spice — with the ingredients and techniques brought by Arab traders over more than a thousand years: dates, semolina, ghee, fennel and pastry-making.
The result is a distinctive repertoire: Kozhi Ada, Unnakaya, Chatti Pathiri, Thalassery biryani, Mutta Surka and a whole family of pathiri breads. It is sometimes anglicised as Moplah cuisine.