PASSAGE TO INDIA

From Goan spice trails to Sri Lankan seafood feasts, a subcontinental cruise stirs the senses

- DANI VALENT.

WE'RE MIDWAY THROUGH A TOUR OF Tropical Spice Plantation in central Goa, where parakeets flit in the treetops and we're told to keep our eyes peeled for monkeys.

Our guide, Pooja, is pointing to a fruit shaped like a pear, the colour of autumn leaves, and with a curled brown tail protruding from its base. We've already seen peppercorns growing on vines, the bark that will become cinnamon, and the vanilla pods that grow from flowers painstakingly hand-pollinated with toothpicks.

"This is cashew fruit," says Pooja. "That curved part attached to the bottom is the nut: every fruit has just one." She explains the laborious process of removing the prized nut and I vow to appreciate every single cashew henceforth. There's a flurry of discussion in my group, a mini-busload from the cruise ship Crystal Symphony, docked an hour to the west in the port of Mormugao. What happens to the cashew fruit, a giantess compared to the tiny, vulnerable nut? Can it be eaten? Pooja fills us in, telling us that it's likely to be fermented to make a locally loved alcoholic beverage called feni.