SRISHTI: ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THALASSERY

Known as the land of three ‘C’s (Cake, Cricket and Circus), Thalassery is a commercial city on the Malabar Coast in the Kannur district, Kerala, India. It was formerly known as ‘Tellicherry’ and this is the place where the three ‘C’s was introduced in the history of India during the British rule. The place is bordered by the districts of Kasaragod, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kodagu (Karnataka) an also by Mahe, a small town, which now forms a district in the Union Territory of Puducherry.

Thalassery has an area of 23.98 square km and approximate population is around 100,000. It is situated 2.5 m to 30m above the sea level. The latitude of the place is 11.7533° N and the longitude is 75.4929° E. Thalassery is a good tourist place to visit and is the best shopping place for spices, dress, etc. The spices of Thalassery is famous the world over.

In the 13^th century travelogue, ‘Books of the Marvels of the World’ or ‘Description of the World’ written by Rustichello da Pisa from the stories told by Marco Polo, an Italian explorer, describing Polo’s travels through Asia between 1271 and 1295, speaks about Thalassery and also mentions about the spices thus:

“There is in this kingdom a great quantity of pepper, and ginger, and cinnamon, and turbit, and of nuts of India. They also manufacture very delicate and beautiful buckrams”.

Apart from this, Thalassery is also very famous for its cuisine – especially the tasty spicy mouthwatering non-vegetarian Thalassery Biriyani (in the local dialect, ‘biri-yaa-ni’). Unlike other biriyanis, Thalassery biriyani uses Kaima/Jeerakasala rice. Thalassery Falooda (a fruit salad cocktail) – a regional variant of the Persian dessert, the spicy non-vegetarian snack Arikkadukka (Stuffed-in-shell mussel, steamed and fried), Kozhi-kkalu (a veg snack made of sliced and fried tapioca), Muttamala and Muttasirka -- a traditional sweet made using egg, Unnakkai (Unnakka, Kaai Ada) -- a spindle-shaped sweet dessert made of plantains, the sweet Param-Pozhi (Banana fried in oil with a covering), etc are some of the special cuisines of Thalassery. 😋😋😋