Food and local cuisine in Munnar
Munnar's food is, at heart, Kerala food served in the hills, with a couple of local twists that come straight from the plantations. The Keralan table leans on rice, coconut, curry leaves and the spices — black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, clove — that grow in the surrounding high ranges, and it spans a hearty range of vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes. After a cool morning among the tea gardens, a hot Kerala breakfast or a spice-laden lunch is one of the pleasures of the trip.
The classic Kerala breakfast dishes are the ones to seek out. Appam — a soft, lacy, bowl-shaped rice-and-coconut pancake, crisp at the edges and spongy in the middle — is a regional signature, and appam with stew (a mild coconut-milk stew of vegetables, chicken or mutton) is a plate that captures Kerala perfectly. Alongside it you'll find puttu (steamed cylinders of ground rice and coconut, eaten with kadala curry or banana), idiyappam (delicate steamed rice-string hoppers), and thattu dosa — the small, thick, soft dosa named for the roadside thattukada stalls where it is served hot with chutney and sambar. These are cheap, filling and everywhere.
For lunch and dinner, the local staples are Kerala parotta (a flaky, layered flatbread) paired with a curry — chicken, beef or vegetable — and the classic Keralan meals or sadya, a vegetarian spread of rice with an array of curries, pickles, thoran and payasam served on a banana leaf, especially at festival time. Kappa (tapioca), often served with a fiery curry, is a much-loved hill and highland dish. Fish and seafood feature less in the mountains than on the coast, but Kerala's coconut-and-spice style carries through everything.
Two things make Munnar's food scene distinctly its own. The first is tea and spice: this is tea country, so a cup of fresh local tea is the natural companion to everything, and shops sell cardamom, pepper and other spices straight from the nearby plantations — cardamom in particular scents the local sweets and chai. The second is homemade chocolate: cocoa grows in the region, and Munnar's little chocolate shops, selling slabs and bars in many flavours, have become a genuine local specialty and a favourite edible souvenir. Seasonal fruit and the crisp fried snacks of Kerala — pazham pori (ripe-banana fritters), unniyappam (small sweet rice-and-jaggery cakes fragrant with cardamom), bonda and the like — round out the between-meals grazing.
Vegetarian and vegan travellers are very well served: appam, puttu, idiyappam, dosa, sadya-style meals, kappa and countless vegetable curries are all naturally vegetarian, and coconut rather than dairy does much of the cooking, so plant-based eating is easy. As anywhere, favour busy places with high turnover, drink sealed or filtered water, and ease into the spicier dishes. Note that Munnar is a small town where eateries can close early, especially outside the centre, so don't leave dinner too late, particularly if your stay is out among the estates.
Culture, festivals and etiquette
Munnar's culture is a distinctive blend, shaped by geography and by the tea industry that built the town. The wider region is Malayali Kerala — the official language is Malayalam and Onam and the Kerala calendar set the rhythm of the year — but the plantations were historically worked by labourers of Tamil origin, and their descendants form a large part of the local population. As a result Tamil is very widely spoken in the estates and town, and the culture of the tea lines carries a strong Tamil imprint. Kerala also has significant Christian and Muslim communities alongside its Hindu majority, so churches, mosques and temples all feature in the high range. English is understood at hotels, tour desks and shops.
The plantation heritage is itself part of what you come to see. The story of how the British opened up the Kanan Devan Hills for tea from the late 1870s, the estates and heritage factories, and the life of the plantation workers who pluck and process the leaf, are woven into the landscape — a tea-estate walk or the Tea Museum brings this history to life. It is a working culture, not a museum piece: the estates around you are still producing tea much as they have for generations.
Festivals here follow both the Kerala and the pan-Indian calendars. Onam, Kerala's great harvest festival (August–September), is the biggest, marked by flower carpets (pookalam), the grand vegetarian Onam sadhya feast on a banana leaf, and cultural performances. Christmas and the New Year are celebrated warmly given the Christian community and the peak tourist season, and the high range is festive and busy through late December. The Tamil harvest festival Pongal (January) is significant among the plantation community, and Deepavali, Vishu (the Malayali New Year in April) and local temple and church feasts all colour the year. If your trip coincides with a festival, expect celebration but also fuller stays and roads.
A few points of etiquette and practicality make for a smoother, more respectful visit:
- Dress for the cold and for modesty. Munnar is cool to cold, especially mornings and evenings, so bring warm layers; and dress modestly at temples, churches and mosques, covering shoulders and knees and removing footwear where required.
- Respect the plantations and protected areas. The tea estates are private working land and much of the high country is protected forest. Keep to public roads and marked paths, don't trample the tea bushes for a photo, don't litter, and follow all national-park and sanctuary rules — including restrictions on plastic, feeding wildlife and straying off the trail.
- Mind the wildlife and the terrain. Keep a safe distance from the Nilgiri tahr and any other animals, never feed them, and take real care near waterfalls, dam edges and cliff viewpoints where wet rocks and fast water are dangerous.
- Travel responsibly in the hills. This is an ecologically sensitive, landslide-prone landscape. Carry your rubbish out, avoid single-use plastic where you can, and don't pick flowers or plants — including, emphatically, the rare Neelakurinji in a bloom year.
- Ask before photographing people, especially plantation workers at work, and be considerate at religious sites and during services.