Liquor and flesh are strictly forbidden to the Nambutiris. Their staple food is rice and curry. Upperi is a curry of chopped vegetables fried in ghi (clarified butter), cocoanut or gingelly oil, seasoned with gingelly (Sesamum indicum), salt, and jaggery (crude sugar). Aviyal is another, composed of jak fruit mixed with some vegetables. Sweets are sometimes eaten. Candied cakes of wheat or rice, and rice boiled in milk with sugar and spices, are delicacies. Papadams (wafer-like cakes) are eaten at almost every meal. The Nambutiri must bathe, and pray to the deity before partaking of any meal. An offering of rice is then made to the household fire, some rice is thrown to the crows, and he sits down to eat. The food is served on a plantain leaf or a bell-metal plate. It should be served by the wife; but, if a man has other Nambutiris dining with him, it is served by men or children. The sexes feed separately. Before a man rises from his meal, his wife must touch the leaf or plate on which the food has been served. The reason may lie in this. The remains of the food are called echchil, and cannot be eaten by any one. Just before finishing his meal and rising, the Nambutiri touches the plate or leaf with his left hand, and at the same time his wife touches it with her right hand. The food is then no longer echchil, and she may eat it. The Nambutiri householder is said to be allowed by the Sastras, which rule his life in every detail, to eat but one meal of rice a day--at midday. He should not, strictly speaking, eat rice in the evening, but he may do so without sinning heinously, and usually does. Fruit only should be eaten in the evening. Women and children eat two or three times in a day. A widow, however, is supposed to lead the life of a Sanyasi, and eats only once a day. A Nambutiri may eat food prepared by an east country Brahman (Pattar), or by an Embrantiri. In fact, in the large illams, where many people are fed every day, the cooks are generally Pattars in South Malabar. The Nambutiri woman is more scrupulous, and will not touch food prepared by any one of a caste inferior to her own, as the Pattar is considered to be. Tea and coffee are objected to. The Sastras do not permit their use. At the same time, they do not prohibit them, and some Nambutiris drink both, but not openly. Persons observing vows are not allowed an oil bath, to eat off bell-metal plates, or to eat certain articles of food. The gourd called churakhai, palmyra fruit, and palmyra jaggery are taboo to the Nambutiri at all times. Water-melons are eaten regularly during the month Karkkataka, to promote health and prolong life. In connection with the Nambutiri's dietary, Mr. Subramani Aiyar states that "their food is extremely simple. As Camöens writes: [93] To crown their meal no meanest life expires. Pulse, fruit, and herb alone their food requires.