Five things the chef will cook on board — and how

Everything is made on board in a galley about the size of a bathroom, on two gas burners, by one chef. It is the best cooking on the trip.

1. Karimeen pollichathu — pearlspot scored and rubbed with a shallot, ginger and chilli masala, wrapped in a banana leaf and cooked on a dry pan until the leaf chars. The leaf is the point: it steams the fish while the outside crisps.
2. Chemmeen ularthiyathu — prawns roasted down with curry leaves, black pepper and slivers of fresh coconut until almost dry. Ask for it with the lunch rather than the dinner; it is better hot off the pan.
3. Sadya — the vegetarian feast on a banana leaf, anywhere from 18 to 26 items: avial, thoran, olan, sambar, rasam, pachadi, two payasams. Served on any boat with a day's notice.
4. Appam and stew — fermented rice hoppers with a lace edge and a soft centre, with a mild coconut-milk stew. The standard breakfast, and the dish most guests ask for the recipe to.
5. Toddy shop food — if you want the local version rather than the hotel version, ask the crew to stop at a toddy shop on the bank. Kappa and fish curry, and it is very hot.

Tell us before you board

Vegetarian, Jain, vegan, no-onion-no-garlic, nut allergies, low chilli — all fine, all easy, all much easier if we know the morning before rather than at 1 PM on the water. The chef buys fresh each day at Kumarakom market.