Kerala's sweet deal

Kumbilappam is made by steaming pre-cooked sweet mixture of ripe jackfruit bulbs, rice flour, jaggery and grated coconut, wrapped in bay leaves shaped as cones.

Unnakai is a spindle-shaped sweet snack that could be loosely translated to coconut-stuffed plantain rolls. The filling also includes nuts, raisins, eggs and sugar.

Ethakkappam–or banana fritters–are made by deep frying banana slices coated with a batter consisting all purpose flour, sugar, turmeric powder and salt.

Unniappam, the closest cousin of Neyyappam, is made by frying small balls of thick batter made by mixing rice flour, jaggery, banana, coconut pieces and cardamom powder.

Avalos Unda–or, the roasted rice balls–is a traditional sweet snack with roasted rice flour, grated coconut, cumin seeds, cardamom powder, sugar and salt.

Vattappam–or, the round appam–is a steamed rice cake made of rice and coconut batter, fermented using yeast. It is soft, spongy and light to eat.

Ela Ada is a steamed rice pancake with a coconut-jaggery filling. It gets its name from the way it is cooked, wrapped in plantain leaf.

Similar to Modaks, Kerala's Kozhukkatai is a steamed sweet rice dumpling with coconut and jaggery filling. The filling is usually flavoured with cardamom powder.

Vettu cake is a deep fried tea cake made of all purpose flour mixed with baking soda, eggs, sugar, cardamom powder and salt.

Sukhiyan is made by deep frying a ball of moist green gram, jaggery and grated coconut mixture covered in all purpose flour batter.