Travel and cooking are 2 of my (many) passions! I just love travelogues. I have already written about Bill Bryson here, the other writer I recently discovered and loved is Paul Theroux. An unexpected but good read was Che Guevara's ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’ - of course that is not just any travelogue. Travelogues just take you to distant and mystical lands for a few hundred rupees and you could do the journey by just sitting on your couch and without the travel fatigue.
I picked up 'Following Fish', without any knowledge about the book or the author. I was a bit skeptical, given the drab cover and a fishy title :)! Since it involved both travel and food, I could not resist. To my pleasant surprise, it indeed turned out to be a wonderful read for a weekend.
The book is divided into 9 essays and it starts from Kolkata and its famous Hilsa and rightfully so, as Kolkata is the food capital (at least for seafood and sweets) and Hilsa is the queen of fishes.
The journey takes a detour inland to Hyderabad where Samanth visits the Goud's family for the famous fish treatment for his Asthma and returns skeptical than before.
The best part of the book is the essay in search of the best toddy and karimeen in Kerala and the one about the Mangalore fish curry comes a close second. The journey continues to Goa (of course), Mumbai and ends at Gujarat. Befittingly, for Gujarat, the last essay talks about the huge fishing boat building industry rather than the cuisine.
The writing is easy and almost like a note from a friend and lyrical at times and sparkling with humor all the time. The author draws in from a host of other great writers and sprinkles their quotes throughout the book. The essays are full of colorful characters and their interesting stories - this is the book's greatest strength.
The book also touches upon the cultural, ecological issues of the day, talks about the dwindling fishes in our seas, and the sandless beaches of Goa, where the tourist industry is eating into the fishing industry. 'Goa - A state that had come to be unfortunately infected with the idleness of its guests'.
This is Samanth’s first book and I hope he continues to write in this fashion for a long time. May he continue to be the 'discoverer of people, a finder-out of stories'.
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our nanbar Kathir can explain about the 2 kerala delicies u mentioned with some graphic descriptions! VP Saheb too can add valuable inputs.in fact he can explain the bengali obsession with fish better from a south indian perspective.my Mother had taken the hyderabad fish treatment for asthma by Goud.
ReplyDeletethe author did not have much to write about Gujju's non veg culinary skills mainly because they are known for sweetly prepared veg dishes and the rajkot region specialises in machineries/diesel engines than food.
coastal andhra fish (kakinada-vizag-machilipatnam especially)is unforgettable, i dont know whether there is any mention of Andhra cuisine or our own tamil nadu fish delicacies, with moghalai flavour from kayal/adhirai/nagai/keezha karai...
ofcourse Goans are among the most laid back in india.perhaps exposure to alcohol from an young age (relatively), easy money due to tourism related activities may be a reason.
Mangalore cuisine has strong kerala influence in mangalore but in mumbai managlorean hotels which are well known for fish/non veg dishes mainly catering to nearby pubs/bars, there is too much of masala.but in kerala the fish dishes are not splattered with so much masala even in fried items.
in our next meet, share more about this book, kathir and Sree can add their perspective too.
Having travelled length and breadth of TN and Kerala in my work assignments, I often feel that we can hit upon a culinary trail starting from chennai and go down to Kanyakumari and move upwards in Kerala till Kannur.I know the choicest of places for having the best local food...either it be Restaurants, tharrukadais, maami messes...and hygienic ones too...all worth sharing in a separate blog.
ReplyDeleteThanks Rajan for the detailed comment! (This was pending for sometime). For some reason, the author skips AP and TN food (but he does visit and write about places in these states).
ReplyDeleteKathir, that is an excellent idea to do a culinary trip across TN at least.
Looks like an interesting travel.. My curiosity is to know whether he followed on about dry fish [ karuvaatai kadandha pOzhudhu.. :) ]. I can tell about the aroma [ yes ! ] when I cross the dry fish market in Mint area after Salt quarters, in NC. "Highway on my plate" was my fav show - I remember the tears Rocky & Mayur had in one of the Vizag highway restaurants on a hot summer day. In fact, Kathir can write a blog very easily.
ReplyDeleteHi Toto, thanks for your visit and comment... Yes, i remember the basin bridge corner where the dry fish market used to be (not sure if it is still there). It used to stink (one man's aroma is another man's stink)! My uncle used to stay at Mint (opp to Stanley) we used to go to his place often from Egmore, so, had to cross that corner, we used to hold our (respective!) noses.
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