Dishes · Malabar food glossary
Sharkara Varatti
Also known as: Sharkara upperi, Jaggery banana chips, Sarkara varatti
Thick-cut fried Nendran banana pieces coated in jaggery spiced with dry ginger and cardamom - the sweet half of Kerala’s sadya chip pair.
Sharkara varatti (sharkara upperi) is the sweet counterpart to Kerala’s salted banana chips: thick pieces of raw Nendran plantain are fried in coconut oil, then tumbled through melted jaggery perfumed with dry ginger (chukku) and cardamom until every piece wears a crackly spiced shell. The dry-ginger note is the detail that separates the real thing from ordinary sugar-coated chips.
On an Onam or Vishu sadya, sharkara varatti is served alongside salted upperi at the top corner of the banana leaf - the pair are the first things laid down and the benchmark by which Kerala households judge a supplier. Like the salted chips, it keeps for weeks and travels well, making it a staple of parcels sent to the diaspora.