Kerala Cuisine: Fishing, Fish, Coconut, Spice, Rice and Bounty

Right this minute I’m looking at a couple dozen men from a small beach village about 15 miles north of Trevandrum, Kerala, India, working to fill their nets with fish. It’s been raining, a post-monsoon storm pattern, so the sea is rough, the surf high. Working from the beach looks complicated. A group of men stand on the beach with ropes. taking direction from a couple of others in the water who keep the net straight and in position to catch fish. Earlier an ancient looking boat was launched from the beach through the surf to take the nets out further. Groups of men, perhaps extended families, line this straight beach as far as I can see in both direction, each moving with the tide and leaving at least 100 yards between the next fishing group. Yesterday morning I observed the catch and it was all small silver fish, maybe sardines. Today, it looks like the catch is better. The fishermen yell and accompany the hard pull of the net with chants. After the catch is sorted, they give another series of shouts to let people know they have fish for sale. Tonight we may be the beneficiaries of today’s catch.

In another Kerala scene, not too far from here, a lithe man wearing his traditional dhoti (what is called a sarong in other tropical places) shinnies up a tall coconut tree to reap a harvest. Later a machete will trim the husk and drain the precious milk from the coconut. A cook will take the meat and grate it. In time, the milk and meat will form the base of many recipes. Tonight we may be the beneficiaries of this harvest.

Another group picks spices. It could be a root like ginger. It could be berries like pepper. It could be leaves like curry. Women clean the waste from the potent spice, or let the spice dry in the sun. Tonight a combination of these spices will join the other ingredients at just the right time to bring out the full flavor of each, fish, coconut. Kerala cuisine is richly spicy, favoring the hot influences of chili, black pepper, cardamom, cloves, ginger, and cinnamon. And don’t forget garlic, cumin seeds, coriander, and turmeric.

There are also various round breads made from wheat flour to dip into the rich sauces and curries. More often, you use your fingers to dip rice into the curry, rice grown in the fields along the fresh backwaters near the sea, wide swaths of that intense green that require great care to produce a good crop. As well, cassava (tapioca) is a seasonal favorite, served the same way as rice.

We are the beneficiaries of all this fresh local food, picked with heart and served graciously. Thank you, Kerala, for your bounty. To follow are photos of boats and fishing and a variety of nets ranging from the great Chinese nets, lever action, to the more basic beach nets. We have rice harvests, ginger drying, markets, and pictures of food and eating. We are nearing the end of our journey.

Archeological Overload, Hampi, India

I’ve never been to a ruined city that was so architecturally interesting, so naturally beautiful, and so complete with the continuity of living cultural traditions as Hampi. Pronounced Humpi, most of the great city was built between 1336 and 1565 at which time the Deccan Muslim Confederacy conquered the city, taking advantage of fighting within the ranks of the Vijayanagara Empire which flourished in these bouldered hills for a couple hundred years. European travelers of the day called it the second most beautiful city in the world, surpassed only by Rome. Like other conquered cities, the place was sacked, partially destroyed, then left to grow over, fill in, settle.

Today the countryside is littered with large boulders which have been there forever, stone temples and excavated Hindu deities that have been there for several hundred years. This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most amazing places I’ve been. The first day we hired a guide who took us to palaces, elephant stables, marketplaces, queens’ baths, and military installations. The photographs to follow begin with our adventure at dawn on top of a hill where we waited for the sun to rise at an abandoned stone temple high above another active Hindu Temple that sat below on the hillside. As we listened to early morning singing and tabla playing from the Temple, the sun rose over Hampi. I’m hoping the area does not change. It’s certainly not overrun with tourists at this point but another worry is that there are a lot of steel mills and iron mines in the area which are changing the economic dynamic. For instance, the valleys were rice paddies not long ago but the farms cannot compete with the wages paid at the steel mills so the farms grow coconut which is much less labor intensive. Who knows what other forces are at work in this complex place. India is on the move.

Holy Cow: on the moooove in India

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The bovine beast above is truly a holy cow. That’s because most folks are Hindu where I took the picture at some old Hindu ruins in Hampi. Here they revere the cow so you see one or a few sauntering like royalty even in the middle of all the hubbub of city and traffic. I’m not sure what the police would do to you if you hit one. I doubt it would end up like the motto of the Road Kill Cafe on Route 66 which claims, “From your grill to ours.” Anyhow, we have now progressed south to Kerala, the southwestern most state in India. Here, one out of every five people is Christian and we are starting to see beef on the menu. To follow is the Wiki synopsis of the roots of Christianity here:

St. Thomas the Apostle, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus, landed on the Kerala coast in 52 A.D. He is said to have first converted about a dozen Brahmin families to Christianity. He organized Christian communities, mostly from upper castes, in several places and established seven churches in Kerala and then at last got martyrdom in Mylapore, Chennai, in 72 A.D. However the exact year of his arrival here is disputed due to lack of credible historical evidence,[6][7][8] despite the fact that the fruits of his hard labour being visible everywhere. His tomb is venerated by people of all religions even today.[9] In 345 A.D., a Palestinian business man, Thomas Cana, along with 72 families came and settled in Kerala, thereby augmenting the Christian community.[10] A second period of intense Christian missionary activity began with the arrival of European missionaries since the discovery of sea route to India by Vasco da Gama in 1498.

I’m curious about Indian Christianity. We are staying at a hotel run by a Roman Catholic family. While antique shopping in Cochin, I came upon a wooden statue of Jesus seated in a lotus position. I liked the Buddha-like incarnation which seems a little more like St. Thomas’s take. I’ve included another photo below of the blending of culture and religion here.

The second cow pictured below is not such a holy cow since I took her photo on the edge of a river this morning while waiting to see an Ayurvedic doctor for a massage. We are down on the tip of India on the west coast. The fish are so tasty I’ve not tried beef. I’m hoping to get another post together on fish and the Kerala cuisine, that is, if I don’t spill too much on my keyboard in the process.

By the way, I have another idea about horn honking, the subject of my first post. I’ve been pondering how the Indians became such good honkers. I’m remembering old movies portraying important British generals making their way through throngs of humans in their long Rolls Royces, honking up a storm, and it made me think that the British might be to blame for all the honking. Most of the people honking today are the grandchildren of those who were honked at by British and maharajas since they were the only ones who had those first cars. I wonder what went through the minds of those first Indians being honked at. Perhaps they were saying to themselves, “Someday I’ll be a honker, wait and see.”

Sixty plus years after Independence the British legacy has morphed into the Western legacy. Every billboard and most signs are in English though most people speak little English. Pretty much each state has its own language. Many people speak their own regional language but also speak Hindi to communicate throughout the country and at least understand some English. However, much of education and the new technological world comes to you in English because it is the language of modernity, of progress.

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Sturdy Horns

Now that the Indian car manufacturer Tata owns Jaguar and Rolls Royce, the great Indian tractor and tractor-like car manufacturer, Mahindra, has been attempting to introduce a small diesel pick-up in the USA. It looks like the project was scrapped for the time being when the test vehicles failed US emissions, but if America does get Indian cars in the future, we are in for some darn sturdy horns.

It takes a little getting used to, but vehicle horns are as well used as tires here. Surprisingly, though, they are not used as an insult or an assault as they are in the US, but as a courtesy. Since I have no clue about anything else in India, I’m attempting to understand the language of horns, as I record the various intonations, coded blats, and duration of said blats as we hurl down the dusty roads.

The drivers in India honk at everything in their path and, I might add, everything is in their paths at all times. My nephew Eric calls it an orderly organic scene of chaos. People don’t seem to hit anything but I’ve not been able to figure out why. You can see some of the things our drivers honk at in the pictures at the bottom of this post.

There does not seem to be any road rage here. People try to out-maneuver each other for every inch of ground covered, every second of road time, but no one seems to bother much about the outcome. Though I really don’t understand what the wag of a head means in India, it seems to embody the driving experience: get there, then wag your head.

Why am I starting my blog about such a trivial subject as vehicle horns since I could be waxing on about Indian hospitality, what it is like to eat food cooked always in fresh spices, or how the swish of a million saris of color is intoxicating beyond belief? Maybe I’ll get to it but I have no words at this point. I’m just glad for the simple things. Internet for example and that chaos is tamed with the blast of a car horn.

Radio Down Under: John Lomax: American Folk Song Collector

This past spring I had the rare opportunity to produce a radio documentary in Sydney, Australia at the studios of ABC Radio National. The show that aired this past summer all over Australia is titled  In the Footsteps of John A. Lomax: American Folk Song Collector.  The program is a personal journey traveling to Texas and Louisiana,  places where John Lomax went nearly a century ago to record the folksongs of cowboys, rural working people, both black and white, and prisoners. It seems like a worthy idea to preserve folk heritage nowadays but back then, valuing the art of ordinary people was a radical idea. My co-producer was the acclaimed ABC sound artist, Sherre DeLys. Though the show is framed as a personal journey I made the real recording journey with friends and colleagues, Steve Zeitlin and Taki Telonidis. Also, thanks to the National Endowment for the Arts for a grant to fund our travel with generous assistance from the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.  If you’d like to download or listen to the show click here.

Final Photographs from Australia

We’ve been home from down under over a month and I’m still missing the smells, sites, and graciousness of our dear Australian and New Zealand friends. I hope it is not long before they visit us or we drop down under again.

Upon embarking on this adventure I vowed to post something each day on this blog. I failed miserably but with this final post I’m adding a few photos from our last 10 days in Sydney. About half the time we stayed at Humph Hall in a northern suburb of the great city where we did a fully acoustic concert and then stayed on for Easter weekend.

Before leaving to come home, Waddie and Lisa accompanied us to the central business district to put on our final concert at Radio National, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). It was a fantastic experience. Teresa and I moved to the Executive Suite at a backpackers’ hotel near ABC for our final week (executive treatment in a backpackers’ hotel consists of two thin towels and a private bath) and I buried myself in the production of a one-hour radio feature which will air this coming July in Australia and will be available to listen online. I’ll keep you posted. The title of the radio documentary which will be broadcast as part of a regular show called Into the Music is “Following in the Footsteps of John Lomax.” Here is the link where you can listen after July 7. http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/intothemusic/

Our final day in Australia we took a train out to meet 90 year-old songwriter and entertainer Geoff Mack and his wife Tabby, a former fast tap dancer from London. We had a lovely afternoon with them and I interviewed Geoff about how he came to write the American classic country song, “I’ve Been Everywhere.” Listen for our NPR, What’s in a Song series where he will answer that question.

Skywriters say it all: I love Teresa

A lovely venue, even without the people. We performed here at Humph Hall near then northern shores of Sydney, thanks to our hosts Wayne and Gial

In the horse arena at the Royal Easter Show with our host and official announcer of the events, Carol and her friend Clare

I’ve never thought of myself as a pensioner but I liked the reduced bus fare.

Dramatic lighting for concert at ABC for staff

Waddie, Lisa, Hal and Teresa with ABC radio producers extraordinaire Sherre deLys and Libby Douglas

The great producing team, Sherre deLys, Hal and engineer Louis Mitchell

Dinner with new friends, Libby Douglas, ABC producer and her partner Wayne Ashton

Hal interviewing Geoff Mack and his wife Tabby

Geoff and Tabby riding motorcycle from Germany through Turkey, before taking the bike apart and shipping it back to Australia

Tabby as fast tap dancer for USO groups after World War II in Germany

Geoff reviewing his royalty statement for “I’ve Been Everywhere”

South Australia Concert Photographs

Our merry group is heading north to Alice Springs. First, we stopped in Clare Valley, some of the finest wine growing country in Australia, to visit Ted and Nerys great friend and vintner Tim Adams in the town of Clare. Below are some lovely shots that our dear friend Lisa Hackett took of some of our performances in Adelaide and in McLaren Vale. Eric Bogle sold out our concert as part of the Adelaide Fringe Festival. Ted Egan sold out our two nights at the Singing Gallery in McLaren Vale. Its nice to ride on the coat tails of famous friends.

Eric Bogle's joy of song is infectious.

Dave and Kath run this lovely Singing Galllery in an old church in McLaren Vale.

The Extraordinary Ted Egan playing his Fosterphone at the Singing Gallery.

Waddie, Hal, and Teresa, The Lonesome Rangers at the Singing Gallery

After the show, Waddie, Hal, Ted, Nerys and Teresa and behind the camera, Lisa.

Tim Adams is known for his Rieslings and Shiraz but my fave was the Pinot Gris

More Good Music from Port Fairy

We were able to fit in two more concerts Monday morning before the festival ended, and both were home runs. Alice Heath and Sime Nugent of Sweet Jean are based in Melbourne and have seen their debut single, “Shiver and Shake” get rave reviews, including a tribute as “Single of 2011” on the PBSfm Breakfast Spread show. The Irish band Beoga is based in County Antrim in the north of Ireland and their last album, how to tune a fish, was named #1 Traditional Album of 2011 in Ireland. They had us on our feet for much of their show, and Eamon Murray is simply the best bodhrán player in the world.

Enjoy these videos!

New Zealand themes

Teresa's high school mate Dinny Gibbs with her husband Grant standing on the edge of their dairy farm, and by the way on the edge of the sea.

If you like a latte, order a flat white when in New Zealand. This place in Auckland is particularly good.

Mount Taranaki with new snow from yesterdays storms. Gibbs cattle in foreground

This piece of land is mired in conflict between a traditional Maori faction and a corporate Maori faction.