Blog 98

Our first evening in Fort Cochin we were recommended a restaurant and headed out for dinner to make the most of being near the sea again and ordered yet more fish! 'Fish fry' and 'fish vindaloo'. No guessing who ordered the vindaloo, but after being assured I could handle it, I tried a smidgen. I SURVIVED A FISH VINDALOO IN INDIA. I must remind our children one day to write this on our grave stones!

A few days away from the hectic beeping and dust of some of the other places we've been was lovely. The couple of days were spent: drinking lime sodas in the cafes and planning where to head to next; catching up on cook books; attempting to fathom the unfathomable Indian train system out, visiting the Chinese fishing nets and trying our turn at fishing; buying fish from the market and having it cooked at the cafe down the strip; and sunset with the locals whilst watching the kids fly their kites on Mahatma Gandhi beach. However, the ultimate highlight was a cooking course with the lady at our home stay, Maria.

At 19.15 we had a little tap on our half open door to tell us she was nearly ready for cooking, and with 3 big bottles of kingfisher chilling in the fridge so were we. In her little kitchen the surfaces were packed with an array of chopped vegetables and spices. Maria stood with her wok in one hand and a bag of vegetable oil in the other so we perched on the chair and sipped beer. As the spices began popping in the pan we started scribbling the recipes for fish moli, vegetable biryani and lime pickle. An hour and a half later, with rubbing tummies we sat down to the feast. Amazing. Hopefully, for the sake of our health and weight, it's one we can replicate with a little less salt and ghee at home and keep the same fab flavour. Obviously all included in Bryn's recipe book!

With almost a late night change of plan to stay we donned the backpacks and headed to the train station for our express train up to Calicut and bus straight onto Wayanad for some nature safariage! Everything crossed for Indian elephant success!

Love Jo x