Mathi (Sardines) Fry

On a Sunday afternoon, as I was rushing home from church, this thick, tantalizing aroma of fried Mathi arrested me on the spot. Arrested is an understatement. I was hypnotized and transformed from this respectable church-going, sublime personality into this indulging, feasting glutton who can be controlled and dragged anywhere just for a plate of fried Mathi.

The imprisoning aroma is generated from the paste applied on the Mathi. The paste for marination is created with pepper powder, chilli powder, coriander powder, curry leaves, turmeric and salt which is mixed with the juice extracted from ginger, garlic, and shallots. Some native amais (aunties) will even add a tinge of lemon juice to it. 

Now when Mathi alias Chaala alias Sardines, which already has its own unique flavor, is marinated in this paste and fried in coconut oil, it becomes a lethal weapon to arrest and hypnotize a Malayali.  I need not say that coconut oil can do seriously damaging things to a Malayalee who stays far far away from their homeland. 

Some types of Malayalis can be tight-lipped but Mathi fried in coconut oil can easily make them talk and pray that they don’t float into their homeland memories.  Else you may land upon 

an evenly lined rubber tree groove that is rustling rhythmically in a gentle breeze or may be the dusk-lit backwaters that ripples under an orange sky. 

You need to have the art to cut and slice up a Mathi. The matriarchs of a Malayali household who are involved with this process almost daily are a veteran of this art. You can give them a chatti (mud pot) full of Mathi at midnight and kando (lo and behold!) in a jiffy they will clean, cut, and slice these whilst in a mid-snore. You can’t say they might even cook it up for you.

In my native land, Mathi arrives in a basket that is tied on either side of our fisherman Anthoni’s bicycle. During the waking hours, the local fishermen deliver these fresh sardines to each house almost like a government ordinate ration policy. Sardine is a staple food of the Malayalis since it comes cheap and is healthy too. A Malayali kitchen is incomplete without a chatti full of Mathi that is promiscuously covered with a short strip of banana leaf. 

The lady of the house cleans up the fish in the backyard near the well where there is an abundant source of water. The neighboring cats pave their way slowly to this spot where chunks of fish innards are loosely available. There is no need to fight it out between them since, let us face it, there is ample. If not this household, just a few meters away on the next block and the next it will be the same silvery delicious sardines.

These cats wander the house to house eat their fill and return with their laden stomachs to the first house where the lady of the house has already done with her laundry. The cool stone slab, where the clothes are washed, is a nice spot for these lethargic cats to dissolve into their routine siesta.

Some personalities, due to their unending love for this fish, have been nicknamed in a prefix with Mathi. My cousin Shaji can finish two kgs of Mathi fry in one sitting. Hence, he is prefixed as Mathi Shaji or my aunty Sally who just cannot stop talking about Mathi. She is labeled as Chaala Sally. These names can shake the foundation of their existence. Even the house of a Malayali can easily give away their resident’s Mathi indulgences, but a true blood Malayali will never give up on Mathi and will remain a true patron of Mathi always.