These side dishes are grilled, fried, steamed or boiled and spiced with any combination of garlic, galingale (a plant of the ginger family), turmeric, coriander, ginger, and lemon grass.
Lemon grass can be grown in any soil and needs very little water.
Mongar is noted for its lemon grass, a plant that can be used to produce an essential oil.
Cultivation on display for the visitors include cinnamon, pepper, ginger, lemon grass, iodine, cocoa, nutmeg, clove, and vanilla.
Kuruppampady is also famous for its lemon grass production for about a century.
Their limited income comes from selling bamboo products and lemon grass oil, which they spend to buy rice from other villages.
The dish is greatly admired for its balance of spicy, sour, salty and sweet flavors and the predominant flavor is that of lemon grass.
It is sometimes cooked with lemon grass and potash.
