Famous food of Andhra Pradesh: Andhra Pradesh cuisine

Andhra food is known across India as the spiciest of the south. Rice is the staple, eaten with dal, rasam, curries and above all pickles and chutneys, and the red chillies of Guntur, one of the biggest chilli markets in the world, give it its heat. For Hyderabadi biryani, haleem and the food of the Nizams, see Telangana Cuisine.

Everyday food

A traditional Andhra meal is served on a banana leaf: rice with ghee, pappu (dal, often cooked with tomato, spinach or gongura), a vegetable curry, a fry, pulusu (a tangy tamarind stew), rasam, appadam and curd, with pickles and podis (spiced powders) on the side.

Pulihora, or tamarind rice with green chillies, peanuts and curry leaves, is made at festivals and taken on journeys. Green vegetables are cooked with many masalas that give each dish its own flavour.

Pickles and chutneys

Pickles are an essential part of Andhra food. Avakaya, made from raw mangoes cut with their stones, mustard powder, chilli powder and sesame oil, is prepared in large jars every summer. Gongura pachadi, a chutney of sorrel leaves, is so loved that it is often called the signature dish of Andhra.

Breakfast

Idli and dosa are eaten everywhere, but the Andhra favourite is pesarattu, a dosa of whole green gram, often filled with upma and served with ginger chutney.

Regional dishes

Coastal Andhra is known for its seafood: Nellore chepala pulusu (fish in tamarind gravy), royyala iguru (prawn fry), and crab curries, along with ulavacharu, a thick soup of horse gram.
Rayalaseema food is hearty and hot: ragi sangati (finger millet balls) with natu kodi kura (country chicken curry), Rayalaseema ragi rotte and the fiery chutneys of the region.
The Godavari districts are known for their delicate vegetarian cooking and sweets.

Sweets

Tirupati laddu: the offering given to pilgrims at the Tirumala temple, with a geographical indication tag since 2009.
Pootharekulu: "paper sweets" from Atreyapuram in the Godavari delta, rice-starch sheets as thin as paper rolled with sugar and ghee.
Bandar laddu: a gram-flour laddu from Machilipatnam (Bandar).
Kakinada kaja: a crisp fried pastry soaked in sugar syrup.
Bobbatlu (puran poli), ariselu (rice and jaggery cakes) and sunnundalu (urad dal laddus) are made at Sankranti and other festivals.