Wednesday, February 19

On Valentine Day I gave Irma a card promising to take her to a meal at any restaurant of her choice. Today we had things to do in Trivandrum and Irma suddenly suggested that we should use my imaginary voucher for lunch at Villa Maya.

I felt sceptical because I suspected that, like many places, they would have a “special” lunch menu which would leave us disappointed. I could not have guessed more wrongly if I had tried. It turned out that they have the full evening menu at lunchtime but with nowhere near as many customers.

Irma started with enough shrimps to qualify as a main course and I ordered tender coconut broth. The waiter arrived with half a coconut, two little pots containing lemon grass and coriander, and a coffee pot containing a clear hot liquid, which he poured theatrically into the coconut shell.

It tasted like the best soup I have ever had, and as a punchline, when I got to the bottom of the broth its heat had melted the coconut into the shell turning it into a slightly gelatinous substance that peeled off with the spoon and tasted delicious.

The rest of the meal lived up to this with Irma declaring her final tiramisu the best she had ever eaten.