Your Cooking Coach
Show MenuHide Menu

India- Day One in Cochin

Spread the love

It my first time here in the south western part of India in Kerala. We are in Cochin right by the Arabian sea. I have been looking forward to this trip as I have never been south of Mumbai. The culture, language and food are completely different down here. In fact the common language is English. We reached here yesterday afternoon after a 4 hour flight and an hour long drive to our small, boutique hotel nestled by the ocean. I can see the boats and ferries passing by from our room- it is quite beautiful. We arrived exhausted from our journey and as we walked to our room, I noticed they had a massage center. Perfect.. I booked a massage and went down for a snack of fried fish pieces sauteed in curry leaves and a big pot of South Indian coffee. The coffee here is delicious- very different from the coffee I have back home. It is nuttier and not as complex as some of the other coffees. I love it- it is served with the milk cooked right into the hot beverage. I was happy and looking forward to my massage.

Fried Fish South Indian Coffee

In the evening we headed into the town and walked around looking at all the stores filled with spices and lots of silk handicrafts. I can’t wait to go back and buy some peppercorns and cardamom. We found a local seafood restaurant called Oceanos restaurant. Most local restaurants don’t serve beer or wine- so we had a delicious ginger lime soda. They brought a glass with a bit of lime and ginger concentrate with a bottle of club soda and a little container of simple syrup.

From the menu we ordered a green mango shrimp curry, a Kerala chicken curry, lemon rice and an appam (local bread). The mango shrimp curry was amazing- great combination of savory and sour. We asked for the curries to be medium spicy as my husband doesn’t do spicy. I asked for a pickle on the side to make it spicier for me- the pickle was amazing. The food was really good and so was the dessert- it was panna cotta with honey figs- absolutely delicious. Somehow I was not expecting to eat a panna cotta in South India. The South Indian coffee was amazing- as usual. As we finished, the chef came out and asked how everything was. We complemented him and asked about the mango pickle. He promptly went into the kitchen and filled a jar of it and refused to take any money for it.

The people are amazingly friendly and super nice. There is a large Portuguese influence down here. Lots of seafood and beef as well- which is different than the rest of the country. Stay tuned for tomorrows adventure…

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

3 Comments
at

Hi Monica! I love your picture of your coffee. Really pretty shot! Can you offer any advice for duplicating this coffee here in NJ? What’s the secret?
Thanks!

at

The coffee down there is amazing. I have not been able to replicate it. You do get South Indian ground coffee in Indian grocery stores but
somehow it doesn’t taste the same at home. There is a restaurant Swagath on OakTree road in Edison that serves really good coffee. You may want
to try it.

at

I haven’t been to India in years and your post transported me. Enjoy your trip, keep posting.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *