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> the food just got wonderfully hot and wow there are all of sudden a lot of churches

implies that you might have visited the green south Indian state called Kerala. Kerala is also called the Spice Garden of India (or maybe the world).

Happy to shamelessly and contextually plug my native land Kerala Tourism's website here if anyone wants to visit the land of spices.

https://www.keralatourism.org/kerala-article/spices-kerala/5...

More about Kerala here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala

They have a fantastic youtube channel as well:

https://www.youtube.com/user/keralatourism/featured

And one of my favorite videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xE8sc2932Js&t=13s

Checked out a few videos from that channel, they are pretty good, thanks for sharing. I've sometimes found that in regards to tourist topics or spots, foreigners know more than locals :)

They tend to know the best food joints, party places, road shortcuts, etc. Maybe because they get more time to explore.

This is fortuitous as I'm planning a trip back to the motherland. I'm Tamil by birth, but my mom's side of the family traces their ancestry to Kerala, and a few generations back they were based in Palakkad. Any recommendations for a temple-lite itinerary?

I would not miss Meenakshi Amman Temple in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. You could look at the Gopurams alone for hours.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meenakshi_Amman_Temple

It's just beautiful. I don't think pictures do it justice. It's an experience. That would also put you in striking distance of Kerala or it could be made as an easy side trip from Kerala.

Edit: I didn't read closely enough that you said temple-lite. But I think its still a good suggestion :)

I'm definitely a fan of the Madurai Meenakshi temple, and the Kapaleeshwarar Temple in Chennai (partly because it's so close to my grandparents' home). But at this point, most of my trips back home have been spent in temples, and I'd like to have a more, shall we say 'secular' experience. :)

I am a Christian from Kerala but I think the below temples are the most visited in Kerala. I wouldn't know deep about the reasons on why they are popular.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabarimala (This one is famous for the seasonal pilgrimage)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vadakkunnathan_Temple (350 years old, famous for the architecture)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guruvayur_Temple (A lot of people gets married in this temple)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padmanabhaswamy_Temple

(Now famous for the recent discovery of huge gold stash)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padmanabhaswamy_Temple#Temple_...

To visit these temples, you would start your trip from Thrissur district all the way down south to Trivandrum district. All of the places near to the temple has got 3 star hotels for stay and all the cities are easily accessible by train except Sabarimala. Almost everyone in Kerala can satisfactorily converse in English and all routes and signs are written in English too. Kerala is a tourist friendly state.

I think the parent commenter was requesting an itinerary without many temples ("temple-lite" → "light on temples"), rather than suggestions of temples to see!

>"implies that you might have visited the green south Indian state called Kerala"

Indeed! Kerala is fantastic! From the Western Ghats to the beautiful beaches Kovalam, amazing spicy fish curries, friendly people, I could go on and on ...

There's no shame in that plug at all :)

Speaking about the medicinal values of Chilli -

In the southern states of India especially Kerala, a home remedy for cuts & bruises is to apply a paste made by grinding green chilly (Bird's eye chilli) and salt. Though it will have a painful burning sensation for sometime, this home remedy is found to heal the cut faster without any infection.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird's_eye_chili

Interesting, had never heard of that before, though I have Kerala friends.

Calendula tincture or ointment works almost like magic too, for small cuts at least. I remember the first time I used it on a small cut on my finger, I couldn't believe how fast it healed.

>heat form peppers is really Southern Indian food, even though the rest of India gets plenty hot temperatures as well.

Eh; it's hard to generalize that way - Andhra food is VERY spicy, but Tamil cuisine, especially of the vegetarian variety, is quite tame. The heavy use of coconut ensures this.

But even Tamil includes Chettinad cuisine which is quite spicy, I was more generalizing hot spicy is more common in the South vs the North of India. I think that's accurate. Out of the 5 states southern states of India, 3 of them Telangana, Kerala and Andrha seem to have plenty of hot chili spice dishes.

Some Maharashtrian (e.g. Kolhapuri cuisine) and Punjabi (can't think of any right now) dishes are plenty spicy. Heard the same about a few Rajasthani dishes too. (I've had plenty of the first two types, not had the third yet.)

This is probably true of some other Indian states as well, maybe including the North-East ones (Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, etc.).

(Edit: Add Goa to the above list of states with spicy food - some Goan dishes are hugely spicy :)

After all, that "heat" may be helpful in cold weather as well, to stimulate the body, to clear the sinuses and so on. And the northern Indian states are colder than the South.

And speaking of cold weather, any of you who are in such an area and don't mind spicy stuff, check out lasun chutney (garli chutney). Easy to make at home, hot and tasty stuff (use small amounts with your food), and will add some zing to many meals. A Maharastrian item. The two main ingredients are red chilli powder and garlic (a few other spices may be added by some people). Ground and roasted (maybe) and then fried into a thick paste.

Rajasthani cuisine would surely be a match for Andhra an Goan analogues!

Yes, I've heard a few of their dishes use a hell of a lot of red chillies :)

>garli chutney

Typo, should be garlic chutney.

Fair point on Chettinad cuisine. There's a reason their variation of chilli powder is called gunpowder. :P

That's funny -- I like spicy Kimchi soup for the same purpose. Not as hot as "Thai hot", but it does a much better job than western chicken soup for the same purpose.