Mathi fry the Kochi way
A simple sardine fry with a marinade you can make in five minutes.
A morning at the Kalamukku auction
What happens between 4 am and 7 am, before your fish reaches the shop.
The first boats tie up at Kalamukku around 4 am. Crews unload in plastic crates, and the auctioneer walks the line calling prices in quick Malayalam. Buyers bid by raising a finger; a crate of sardines can change hands in under ten seconds.
Joseph, our buyer, reaches the harbour at 3.45. He checks which boats were out overnight and which spent two days at sea, because fish from a long trip has spent longer in the hold. He looks at the gills and eyes of a few fish in each crate before bidding.
By 6 am the shop van is loaded with ice and heading back to Pallimukku. Our cutters start scaling and portioning at 6.30, and the day’s WhatsApp list goes out at 7 with prices worked out from what we paid.
Some days there is very little. During the monsoon trawling ban in June and July, the big boats stay in, and we buy only from small country boats. Prices go up and choice goes down, and we tell you that honestly rather than fill the counter with frozen stock.
