Around the World in 80 Dinners - Bill Jamison [85]
THE NITTY-GRITTY
TAJ MAHAL PALACE & TOWER
www.tajhotels.com
Apollo Bunder, Mumbai
91-22-6665-3366
fax 91-22-6665-0323
For pleasure travelers, the extra expense
of staying in the Palace Wing pays off.
Look broadly for good deals, which are
usually available.
BRUNTON BOATYARD
www.cghearth.com
Calvetty Road, Kochi
91-484-221-5461 fax 91-484-221-5562
A gem.
MALABAR JUNCTION
in the Malabar House hotel
Parade Road, Kochi
91-484-221-6666
breakfast, lunch, and dinner
CASINO HOTEL
www.cghearth.com
Willingdon Island, Kochi
91-484-266-8221
fax 91-484-266-8001
Not as good a location for pleasure
travelers as the Brunton Boatyard,
but its Fort Cochin restaurant is the
best in the area.
SPICE COAST CRUISES
www.cghearth.com
Puthenangadi Jetty, Kottayam
(no phone or fax)
Highly recommended.
COCONUT LAGOON
www.cghearth.com
Kumarakom
91-481-252-4491
Serene retreat with good local food.
Fish Molee
When fresh curry leaves aren’t available, we use a handful of cilantro leaves. The flavor’s not the same, but the herbal freshness is similar.
SERVES 6
¼ cup coconut oil
2 teaspoons black mustard seeds
1½ cups chopped red onion
1 cup diced red-ripe tomato
2 plump garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
1 or 2 serrano chiles, split lengthwise and seeds removed (mince part or all of 1 chile for a spicier sauce)
1 teaspoon salt, or more to taste
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1½ to 1¾ pounds cod or haddock fillets, cut into 2-inch-wide sections
1 cup coconut milk
½ cup fish stock, clam juice, or water
10 to 12 fresh curry leaves, or a handful of fresh cilantro leaves
Lime wedges
Warm the coconut oil over medium heat in a large, deep skillet. As soon as the oil is fragrant, stir in the mustard seeds, and as soon as they begin to crackle and pop, stir in the onion. Once the onion has become limp, after about 2 minutes, stir in one-half of the tomato; add the garlic, ginger, chile, salt, turmeric, and black pepper. Fry, stirring up frequently, until the tomato has softened and begun to break down, about 5 additional minutes. Push the onion mixture to one side of the skillet and add the fish in a single layer. With a spatula, scrape up enough of the onion mixture to smear over the tops of the pieces of fish. Pour the coconut milk and stock around and over the fish; then scatter the curry leaves over everything. Cover and simmer 3 minutes; uncover and give the skillet a swirl, rather than stirring the mixture, which could break up the fish. Cook a few minutes more, uncovered, if needed to cook the fish through. The sauce will be fairly thin. Spoon into soup plates, garnish with the remaining tomato and lime wedges, and serve.
CHINA
“DO YOU THINK WE OUGHT TO TAKE ALONG THE EXTRA bar of soap in the bathroom?” Cheryl asks as we’re packing to leave India for Hong Kong.
“What for?”
“For the YMCA, of course. Do you think the rooms have soap?”
“Cheryl, we’re booked into an executive suite, not a dormitory. No one in Hong Kong makes executives walk around the city stinky.”
“I don’t know about this,” she says, going to the bathroom to grab the soap just in case.
On our one previous trip to Hong Kong, twenty years earlier, we stayed at the Excelsior Hotel, an upscale establishment that offered rooms with great views of the harbor and the city, including planes cruising by at eye level to land at the old downtown airport. No concerns about soap there. Now our Cathay Pacific flight goes into the mammoth but sleekly efficient new airport, far out of the city but a quick trip in on an effortless express train to the Kowloon station, where we grab a taxi. Cheryl carefully watches the reaction of the lady driver when Bill gives her our destination, hoping for a clue of one