Kavaratti travel guide

Fresh seafood

The Andaman Islands' oceanic bounty—Red Snapper, Barracuda, Giant Trevally and Rock Lobster from the Andaman Sea, landed daily at Port Blair's Aberdeen Bazaar fish market; restaurants at Havelock Island char-grill fish on the beach within hours of catching

Tuna preparations

Lakshadweeps dietary backbone—fresh yellowfin tuna from the Indian Ocean prepared as dried fish (dried tuna flakes are the islands' most traded food), tuna curry, tuna cutlet and raw tuna with coconut; the islands' extraordinary tuna culture is invisible to the Indian mainland

Coconut dishes

Lakshadweep's coconut-everything cuisine—coconut milk, grated coconut and coconut oil appear in every preparation; the islands' coconut palms produce particularly sweet, rich coconuts; the food is wholly coconut-seasoned in a way that nowhere on the mainland achieves

Octopus curry

Kavarattis octopus in coconut-chili sauce—Mediterranean-style braising applied to fresh octopus tenderized by reef fishing; the tenderized octopus absorbs the island's spice paste beautifully; available at the few licensed guesthouses on Kavaratti and Bangaram