Anna Mani at the table

In South India, there is no separation of starter, main course, and dessert: everything arrives together, arranged in small mounds around a dome of rice on a banana leaf. Daily meals are simple — rice, a legume, a vegetable with coconut — while festive days (Onam, weddings, celebrations of the Syrian Church of Kerala) feature a dozen preparations, from salty to sour to the sweet payasam that ends the meal. Cardamom, grown on the Peermade hills, and coconut perfume almost everything.

The Mani family owned cardamom plantations in the Cardamom Hills of Travancore. This precious spice, combined with freshly pressed coconut milk, gives Kerala sweets their recognizable fragrance. Coconut oil, in turn, serves as the cooking fat for almost all savory dishes.