Thalavoor Karimeen Stall

Thalavoor is the kind of place a guidebook can't quite explain. A tin-roof kitchen, six plastic stools, a banana tree out front, and the karimeen pollichathu people drive an hour for.

The fish comes off the lake the same morning. The masala is the cook's grandmother's recipe — restraint over heat, with curry leaves and coconut oil doing most of the work.