It’s Mathi Fry

For the people from coastal towns, fish is a normal part of their daily diet. As with individual preference, we build our own palette for a particular fish or a certain types of fishes.

Sardine, or locally called mathi, chala, macroni mathi, keeri chala, the different names are used for the different species of sardine. Some more tasty than the other, some more fleshy, some full of thorns, some good only for frying, etc

I like both curry and fry version. Someday, I would like to open an exclusive restaurant serving mathi or sardine. will it run? What type of dishes should be available? Or what about a restaurant only with fish. What about wine as an appetizer? That would be a great idea – serve banana or rice or pineapple fine – just on a shot glass and then the rest of the dishes.

But then, we have regressive and outdated laws governing wine, which puts it in the category of alcohol. ( Akbari Act) Probably, our society, government will grow enough in the year 2055 an give license to sell or serve wine to customers in a restaurant.

Preparing Mathi the Right Way

I have had lunch from many restaurants in Trivandrum. One of the cheapest fish to order is mathi ( sardine). Here’s the major disappointment for me.

The problem is that most hoteliers take mathi very casually. Meaning, as it’s a low priced small fish, less time is given for cleaning the scales, and to check the freshness of it. If the market from which it is sourced sell fresh ones, then customers get to enjoy fresh fish.

In most cases, they don’t really look at the FRESH part of the fish. It will be moderately okay. Not consistently fresh so that a customer can be assured of certain quality and taste while serving mathi.

Also, mathi is not cleaned thoroughly. Mostly, scales around the next and tail is still kept. Also,  the gut area is not cleaned like the way it’s done at most home.