Gourmand World Cookbook Award winner

"My copy of The Kerala Kitchen has notes scribbled in it and has turmeric stains on certain pages. Now it's your turn to enjoy. So line up your spices, ready your grated coconut and go to it. You are in for both a literary and gastronomic treat."

—Abraham Verghese, author of The Covenant of Water

Now in an expanded edition with new recipes and photographs, this unique cookbook-memoir transports readers to Kerala, a verdant, tropical state on the Malabar Coast of South India.

Since ancient times, seafarers and traders have been drawn by the lure of spices to Kerala. Saint Thomas also traveled this spice route, converting several Brahmin families who later intermarried with Syrians who had settled here; thus was born the vibrant Syrian Christian community of Kerala. Today, ayurvedic massage resorts and backwater cruises make this scenic land a top tourist...