Of all the Indian cuisines, probably the hottest and spiciest one is that of Andhra Pradesh. The people love spicy food and the region is rich in hot spices and chillies.
The cuisine of Andhra Pradesh is classified broadly into two categories –original and traditional Andhra cuisine and the other is the Hyderabadi cuisine with Mughlai influences in it. The former one is the spicier variety and mostly is pure vegetarian at coastal areas which serve seafood dishes as a part of regular meals. The latter one has the finest dishes of both the worlds. The Hyderabadi one has non vegetarian dishes too which include extremely tasty lamb and chicken delicacies.
The staple food of the state is rice and it is always accompanied with a super spicy broth – curries and sambar of spices and veggies.
The most important part of the cuisine of Anantapur, which reflects the Andhra traditions, is the variety of pickles. Pickle worth mentioning is Avakaya which is made with green mango and the very tasty Gongura which is made with leaves of Gongura plant. There is also a variation for the latter type of pickle which is no less delectable.
Relishing Andhra’s food is indeed a very elaborate romance with the taste buds, so, let’s get started, mouth watering isn’t it?
Much like most of the South Indian cuisine, the typical lunch is a spicy affair. The lunch is served to you in a banana leaf as per the traditions. With the rice, they serve you spoons of butter and ghee which are coolants for the extremely spicy and hot dish. Also served mandatorily is vegetable curry, sambar, a variety of chutneys, pungent pickles and hot and dry powders. All these are served along with the main dish. For dinner, on a plate you will find puliyogare which is tamarind rice, boiled rice, garelu which is Andhra vada, vegetable curry, daal, pickles, sambar, Pulusu, pachadi, and roasted chillies.
The initial bites of the meal, modati mudda as they call it, consists mainly of a few balls made of rice, which is either pickled rice or ghee rice. The former is mainly lime, gooseberry, grapefruit or aavakkaya which means mango. Pickled rice can also be mixed with powders such as coriander, parupu podi, pudina, coconut podi, and curry leaves.
The well known veg dishes from Anantapur and Andhra Pradesh include ulli kura which is a curry made with spring onions, kakaraya Pulusu which is a gravy made with bitter gourd, rasam, pesaratty Pulusu, karapu annam etc. The non veg dishes would include fish gravy, egg Pulusu, kodi kura, meat curry, etc.
Well known snacks of the region include Billavakka which is prepared using deep fried rice flour, sakinalu, which is a traditional snack prepared on the festival of Makarsankranti and made with sesame seeds and rice flour.
If you are a lover of spicy food, but cannot find time to visit Andhra Pradesh especially for its cuisine, you can try the food even on train when you happen to cross any city or town of the state. For example, food delivery at Anantapur station is known for some delicious Andhra cuisine.