Travels with the Fish

Rich in promise, full of unbidden joy and untapped secrets, Travels with the Fish is not about food. Gopinath’s cookbook travelogue is a good read. The quixotic travels and misadventures of Gopinath in places as varied as Kerala and Turkey, Thailand and Chicago, Jerusalem and Bhusaval, form not merely an absorbing narrative of a bon vivant’s wanderings, but are also a raconteur’s treasury of sometimes hilarious stories that can be retold at parties. Always at hand, of course, is the Fish, armchair traveler and eternal nitpicker, ever ready to puncture the narrative with raised eyebrow and scathing putdown whenever he feels the telling has grown richer than the tale. Be it a quest for the legendary Sultan Saladin’s farman in Jerusalem, or a struggle to carry 300 kgs of vegetables from Bangkok to Borivali, Gopinath’s stories are woven through with sensitive insights into varied cultures, lifestyles and culinary habits.