George Sudarshan at the table

In Kerala, the traditional vegetarian meal is called sadya: there is no separation of starter, main course, and dessert as in Western meals. Everything is placed at once on a large banana leaf — rice in the center, surrounded by a circle of small preparations (coconut vegetables, lentils, sour condiments, spiced yogurt) that you mix by hand in small mouthfuls, from savory to the sweet payasam that ends the meal. The everyday version is a reduced version: a base of rice and two or three side dishes.

Two absolute markers of Kerala cuisine: coconut oil with its green, buttery aroma in which everything is sautéed, and curry leaves thrown crackling into hot oil (the "tadka") to release their fragrance. This is the smell of the kitchen in Pallam where Sudarshan grew up.