Last night I ate a masala dosa in a branch of ‘Indian Coffee House’, a workers’ co-operative chain that seems to cover central Kerala. The potato mix at the centre of the dosa was red with tomato and was nearer an extremely thick soup in consistency than the ‘bubble-and-squeak’ I’ve encountered so far. It was palatable but I’ve enjoyed the other variety more.

This morning I tried ‘vegetable cutlets’ and ‘aloo masala’: aloo masala (literally spiced/flavoured potato) was the stuff that had been inside last night’s dosa and vegetable cutlets appeared to be balls of a close relative covered in flour and then deep-fried.

So I’ve definitely reached my spud quota (thank you Bill Hicks!).

Meanderings through this regeionof Ernakulam confirm its similarity to Birmingham: all sorts of engineering works, any amount of small shops selling metal tubes in various sections and almost no end of clothing wholesalers and retailers. Time to move on.