Toddy shop in Allepey

today is Sunday and we are in Mysore. but, last Tuesday night, one of our final treats at Green Palms Homestay was that Maria's husband Phillip, who is a very interesting guy born on the island but with additional connections to Nigeria, Germany, the states and England where he now lives half the year, took Craig and me over to the toddy shop in the evening.

to get there you walk 1/4 mile around the island past the usual front yards of houses on the left, and river on the right. then you pass a ferry dock or two and then turn left where the log spans the little irrigation ditch and there is a nondescript cabin there and on the left side, there is like a breezeway, a covered roof area that is divided into 3 or 4 little cubicles with walls that start knee high and end above your forehead. Why? well of course so wives can't tell if husbands are drinking the toddy. Toddy is harvested from the coconut palm, but from the stems way up high where the nuts grow and not the nuts themselves. somehow in the process of collecting it, it self ferments into a cloudy white fizzy liquid with a slightly licoricey sour taste. not very appetizing at first sip! grows on you though. over a 12 hour period it clarifies and gets a little better but then turns quickly to undrinkable vinegar. to heighten your appetite for the toddy, you are served food if you wish: we know a TV program showed they served a spicy beef there, instead we got river mussel meat in a spicy little sauce. it was fun.

we really loved Green Palms homes, the island was a treat and Maria/Phillip's home had very comfortable very modern rooms with silent fans and/or a/c and a modern kitchen and lovely expansive living rooms with built in cabinetry.  the mother who we took cooking classes from, Anna or Anu, is very shy and still cooks the guests food in a small boxy dark slightly grimy kitchen when she need not. she is a sweetheart, I forget to mention that after we returned from the Allepey town, she helped show us how to make my favorite indian bread, parathas, also spelled porotas.  you make a slightly risen dough and then you keep rolling it on itself with lots of oil or ghee or coconut oil, something, so it's in flaky layers like a croissant. then it's grilled in a flat pan. delicious!

the next morning we got on somewhat of an express train, one with cloudy windows, air conditioning and only about 5 stops between two quite distant cities, Allepey and Calicut (we skipped cochin, no time).  Calicut also spelled Kozikhode, way different! more muslimi influence, and has hills quite nearby, the buildings are still mostly one or two story with steeply slanted tile roofs and some porches, but are more likley to have slightly moorish design elements. the shops in these towns have lots and lots of hanging dresses on display for the teens and younger girls who don't yet need to wear saris or salwar kameez or 'gowns'.  lots of ruffles, lots of glitz, very pretty.  also we see more and more women in chadors.  and lots of strict separation of ladies, and men, for example on the bus... craig and I hopped on a local bus up to our next destination, Wyanad, finding it at the bus station was QUITE hard due to the script all being in Malayalam, and found empty seats together ina  mysteriously empty row with one woman in the window seat - and, it was the LADIES row! so we sat surrounded by ladies, the men all safely behind us.