What the island eats

Lakshadweep cooking is the food of fishermen: tuna in every form, coconut in every dish, rice at every meal and lime squeezed over all of it.

At The Long Table the curries are slow and the bread comes from the tandoor. Mas, the smoked tuna that the islands have traded for centuries, turns up in breakfast sambol and in the crab curry's base.

Most of our vegetables are grown on the island, in raised beds behind the solar field. The cooks pick at seven and the menu is written at eight.

Ask for the staff lunch one day. It is the best thing we make and it is never on the menu.