Following Fish: One Man's Journey into the Food and Culture of the Indian Coast

Nine essays offer rich journalistic investigations of India's coastal societies that speak as eloquently to the armchair traveler as to lovers of the sea and its lore In a coastline as long and diverse as India's, fish inhabit the heart of many worlds--food of course, but also culture, commerce, sport, history, and society. Journeying along the edges of the peninsula, this book delivers a kaleidoscope of extraordinary stories. It conducts investigations of, among others, the use of fish to treat asthmatics in Hyderabad, the preparation and the process of eating West Bengal's prized hilsa, the ancient art of building fishing boats in Gujarat, the fiery cuisine and singular spirit of Kerala's toddy shops, the food and lives of Mumbai's first peoples, the history of an old Catholic fishing community in Tamil Nadu, and the hunt for the world's fastest fish near Goa. Pulsating with pleasure, adventure, and discovery, and tempered by nostalgia and loss, this chronicle reveals a series of unknown Indias in a book as revealing of the subcontinent as any three times its length.