Pat Chapman contributed eight recipes to the book, six being from the six tsunami victim countries, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Chenai India, the Andamans, Thailand and Indonesia .
This is his introduction in the book:
I’m no different from any other exhausted tourist; given the chance, I enjoy lazy sun-worshipping on the safe-haven of an exotic sandy beach, dipping now and then into a benign warm sea to cool down. Like most other people, I had never heard the word 'Tsunami'.
On 26th December 2004 our innocence ended. Now we know that giant, high-speed waves are not the fiction of disaster movies; no seaside on earth is safe from them.
Since 1982, business and pleasure has taken me to the six countries worst affected by the Tsunami: the Maldives once, Sri Lanka five times, the Chenai area of India ten times, the Andamans once, Southern Thailand three times, and eastern Indonesia once. How many times have I relaxed on those very same destroyed beaches?
I remember the smiling faces of hotel personnel, traders, hawkers, shop-keepers, taxi drivers and local inhabitants, kids and adult; friendly, helpful, wonderful people who can never do enough to please you.
I remember little things like the wizened old man in a white dhoti trying to sell me fake Raj coins on Chenai’s Marina beach; or the skinny fishermen weaving their frail sailing-rafts between the razor-sharp rocks to catch crabs at Sri Lanka’s Bentota; or the tiny Indonesian lass carrying a rusty tub teeming with tiny turtles in Sumatra’s Padang town; or the school kids pestering for “pens please” at Mahabalipuram temples, near Madras; or the crows lurking in coconut trees waiting to swoop down and swipe toast from unsuspecting beachside breakfasters at Sinclairs hotel located right on the Bay of Bengal at South Point, Port Blair, Andaman’s capital; or two pet hens, much-loved Maldives island residents and the wild tropical fish at the same island enjoying being finger-fed on white bread; or the saffron-clad monk sleeping rough at India’s southern-most tip, the beach at Kanyakumari; or the elderly women cooking Pad Thai noodles on charcoal braziers on Phuket’s seafront. What happened to them? I’ll never know.
These recipes, my Tsunami 6, are dedicated to all those lost in the disaster. But we can’t bring them back. More urgently, we must help rebuild the shattered lives of the survivors. We must all holiday on their beaches as soon as, and as often as we can. Our very presence will send a strong signal that we are prepared to risk the Tsunami, and our ‘dollars’ will help provide the material support the region will require for decades.
Meanwhile, and in between visits, I commend you to enjoy the delicious tastes of the region with my Tsunami 6 recipes.
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Click here to return to East meets West Tsunami cookbook.
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