Seaside India

Sticking on the theme of al fresco dining, India remains one of the most consistently reliable places to find excellent food by the sea. Some of my favourites were in Goa...

In my opinion, good dhal is light, yet filling, spicy and creamy, perfect with fluffy chapati or rice. And this was no exception. The sun was setting in Arambol and it was, therefore, beer a'clock. Cue a cold, crisp beer and a steaming bowl of dhal to accompany the sounds of seabirds images of fishermen returning from their day out at sea. It was a pinkish, soft sunset where the clouds hung to the horizon; it was a good half hour until the hues of gold and red broke through and I was able to make a real toast to the closing of another fantastic day.

I love cooking, and I especially love cooking curries, so being in India was the perfect opportunity to try new dishes and really get to learn about the varity of flavours and how to combine them in new and interesting ways. This meal was shared with a few people I met during the day whilst walking the coastal path and reminded me of the many nights spent frequenting restaurants on Manchester's Curry Mile in Rusholme. I was never convinced by the combination of chicken and prawn, but this was exceptional. Lessons from this meal: lemon and coriander = yum; a drizzle of coconut milk is often enough; when combining more than one meat / fish it is far better to let the flavours and textures speak for themselves through slow cooking in a dry dish than being lost in an overly wet sauce.

More charcoaled taste sensations, straight from the fisherman's basket! I spent much of this meal thinking back to the experiences in Essaouira in Morocco of wandering along the harbour trying to decide where to purchase lunch. You simply point at the fish which winks at your taste buds and decide how you'd prefer it to be served (generally charcoaled with a squeeze of lemon and a tear of crusty bread). It was this style of fish shopping which confirmed that octopus is tasty, and can be much more soft than stringy: it really is in the cooking, and if they are cooked less than two hours after being fished then you really would have to be a numpty to get it wrong. Given that there is a distinct shortage of numpty fish chefs living in any coastal place I've visited on my travels, of the hundreds of al fresco meals I've had in my time, fish by the sea will always be top of the wish list.