Avakaya ఆవకాయ
The mango pickle every Telugu household makes in May: raw mango cubes cured in mustard powder, red chilli powder, salt and sesame oil, aged in ceramic jars for a year of lunches. Godavari-district avakaya, made with the local Banginapalli and Collector mangoes, is prized.
Where to try it
Home-made is best — ask a friend. Pickle stores in Rajahmundry, Kakinada and Guntur ship nationwide.
What's in it
Related dishes
Andhra Meals (Bhojanam)
The full banana-leaf spread: rice with a parade of pappu (dal), a dry curry, a pulusu or sambar, rasam, a pachadi or two, podi with ghee, pappu chaaru, curd and pickle — eaten in a fixed order and topped up until you surrender. Unlimited 'meals' restaurants are an institution in every town.
Gongura Pachadi
The sour red sorrel leaf — Andhra's signature green — pounded with red chillies, garlic and tempered spices into a chutney that defines the state's palate. Gongura mutton and gongura chicken are the same leaf's non-vegetarian afterlife.
Pesarattu
A crisp green-gram crepe eaten for breakfast with ginger chutney (allam pachadi). The 'MLA pesarattu' comes stuffed with upma — named, legend says, for the legislators' canteen in Hyderabad — and is the state's favourite tiffin.
Gutti Vankaya Kura
Small brinjals slit and stuffed with a paste of roasted peanuts, sesame, coconut and spices, then simmered in a tamarind gravy — the pride of the Andhra vegetarian table and a wedding-feast staple.