Kerala Spice Route & Coastal Cuisine Tour (7N/8D)

Description

Kerala's cuisine was built by the sea. For two thousand years Roman, Arab, Chinese, Jewish, Portuguese and Dutch traders came for its pepper and cardamom, and each left something behind in the kitchen. This eight-day Kerala Spice Route journey traces that history from the harbour warehouses of Fort Kochi to the cardamom hills of Thekkady and the coconut-rich backwaters of Alleppey, and it remains one of the most rewarding culinary itineraries in India.

Fort Kochi opens the tour. The old spice godowns of Mattancherry still perfume entire streets with pepper, turmeric and ginger, and the Jewish quarter, Portuguese churches and Chinese fishing nets tell the story of who came and what they brought. A guided market visit followed by a seafood cooking session with a local family introduces the coastal repertoire: karimeen pollichathu, meen moilee, prawn roast and the coconut and curry leaf foundations of everyday Keralan cooking.

The journey then climbs into the Western Ghats. At Thekkady you walk through working plantations where cardamom, black pepper, nutmeg, clove, vanilla and cinnamon grow in the same few acres, learning to identify each in its raw form and understanding how processing  determines quality and price. A plantation lunch prepared over wood fire demonstrates how differently the hill communities cook compared to the coast.

The tour closes on the Alleppey backwaters aboard a private houseboat, where your onboard chef cooks the day's catch with toddy vinegar, green mango and freshly grated coconut. Along the way you visit a traditional toddy shop for its famously robust cooking, taste the Malabar Muslim tradition of biryanis and pathiri breads, and finish with a Kerala sadhya, the vegetarian banana leaf feast of up to twenty-four dishes that remains one of India's great culinary set pieces.