Around the World in 80 Dinners - Bill Jamison [77]
Even today, pepper remains, by monetary value, the most widely traded spice in the world. By weight, chiles enjoy a slight dominance in the market, but pepper sales account for 20 percent of the financial worth of all international spice transactions. Prices are still set largely in Kerala, in the small electronic trading office of the Pepper Exchange in Kochi—unfortunately not open to the public during our visit.
The fruitfulness of the land is visible from the air, as our flight descends toward the airport. Expansive waterways flow leisurely through fields astoundingly green and thriving. A woman from Mumbai sitting next to Cheryl, making her first trip to Kochi, gasps out loud and clutches her hands to her chest. “Pardon me,” she says, “I just never knew the earth could be so lush.”
A driver sent by the Brunton Boatyard, our Kochi hotel, meets us in the terminal and takes us into the city, pounding on the horn for almost the entire hour we’re on the road. Pastoral countryside lines the highway but actually increases the congestion because hundreds of people, cows, and other creatures amble along the shoulder, reducing the pavement available to cars, trucks, buses, motorbikes, and bicycles—all adept at occupying any empty space. As in Mumbai, the concept of traffic lanes (despite frequent signs on the subject) appears to be an alien principle, even less acceptable than allowing another motorist to pass without a protesting honk.
A lineup of reception staff, awash in white linen, greets us at the seafront hotel with necklaces of jasmine buds and marigolds. Previously a shipbuilding yard, the gracefully nautical inn belongs to a small Kerala chain called CGH Earth, founded by Dominic Joseph Kuruvinakunnel in 1957 and now run by his six sons. The family also owns and operates our other two lodging choices in the area, both an hour south of Kochi on the grand Vembanad Lake. As agreed in advance, their managers are arranging all our local transportation and other logistics. The “Earth” in the business name denotes the family’s commitment to responsible tourism, a pledge to clients to respect and preserve the cultural heritage and natural environment in their work.
As an important aspect of the cultural and natural bounty, food figures prominently in this effort. The long menu at the History Café in Brunton Boatyard incorporates dishes and influences from all the diverse people who have settled in Kochi over time, including Hindus (vegetarian and not), Muslims, Syriac Christians, Jews, and traders and colonial administrators from Arabic lands, Portugal, the Netherlands (the country that ousted the Portuguese), and Great Britain (which displaced the Dutch).
At a predinner cooking demonstration, a young kitchen assistant named Anand discusses the comingling of these traditions locally. “Everyone shares religious holidays. Yesterday was the end of Ramadan, and Jews, Christians, and Hindus went with Muslims to the mosque. You will see Christian churches around town right now still decorated with Diwali lights.”
Anand starts his demo by telling us, “My name means ‘making other people happy,’ which I hope to do for you today by cooking a Syriac Christian dish, fish molee. It has lots of flavor, as you’ll see, but requires fewer ingredients than specialties from northern India, where they season mainly with blends of lots of dry spices.” He first heats coconut oil in a pan, then puts in black mustard seeds and, when they crackle,