Coming back to my origin for a minute. The place i was born. Kerala.
The name "Keralam" comes from two words: "Kera" + "Alam". ("Kera" means coconut (tree) and "Alam" means land or location). The State of Kerala was formed by the amalgamation of three regions: the Kingdom of Thiruvithamcoore (Travancore), the Kingdom of Kochi (Cochin), and the Province of Malabar.
You will see this exact image of the beautiful Kerala for miles stretch when you are travelling by train! It is the best feeling ever that words cannot describe!

A lot of questions crop up while talking about the foods of Kerala. What all foods were the people living this country were eating down the centuries ? Surely, it would never have been what we now see. Because, food, like all aspects of human culture, changes over time.
What easier way to advertise than rave about the flavour of spices and coconut oil ? See this comment – ‘Almost every dish prepared in Kerala has coconut and spices added to it – spices such as cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cloves, garlic, cumin, coriander, turmeric etc. Of course, turmeric powder is a must.(i use turmeric in every dish) And cumin seeds are grounded with coconut to make a basic paste. Mustard seeds,likewise, are used for seasoning.

And there are as many dishes without coconut as there are dishes that use it ! ( i learnt that early on esp when you come from a family that uses coconut in most of the dishes (in Vatakara)..and (Thrisoor) not much of coconut at all. 

About coconut oil – another misconception is that coconut oil is the one and only cooking medium in Kerala. Far from true. The popularity of coconut oil is a quite recent trend. Earlier, just a couple of decades away, gingelly oil, made from sesame seeds (locally called ‘nallenna’), was used for seasoning. Coconut oil was used mainly for frying - pappadams, chips, appam-s – and also for bathing.