A Long Lunch by the Sea

Service Description

Kerala is a narrow strip of land with the Arabian Sea along its whole edge. Its days follow the boats. Before light, the fishermen push out past the breakers, and by midmorning the catch is on the sand: sardines, mackerel, pearl spot, prawns still flicking. By noon it is in a clay pot over a fire, and someone's mother is tasting the curry from the back of a spoon. This lunch begins at home. My father loved a good bottle of scotch. He didn't pour it often, but when he did, my mother made fish cakes to keep it company. They were crisp and gently spiced, and they disappeared faster than the scotch. I've made them for you just as she did. Then the table opens up. There is seafood molee, as Kerala as it gets: sweet shrimp and mussels in turmeric and coconut milk, mild and golden. Beside it is the fish curry, which changes from one corner of Kerala to the next. The best I ever had was made by the fishermen's wives, dark with kodampuli and spicy and tangy all at once, a flavor bomb that tastes the way it has for generations. The herb-crusted salmon over coconut rice, wrapped and roasted in banana leaf, needs no introduction for some of you. Guests still bring it up a year after they've eaten it, which is the nicest thing anyone can say about a dish. Fall is here, and persimmons with it, so they go into a salad, bright and sweet against everything warm on the plate. To close, a spiced tres leches cake, soft with milk, served with chai. Peach iced tea is poured all through lunch. There's no hurry at this table. Come hungry and stay a while.