Apple relish

Apples used to be hard to obtain in Sri Lanka. I clearly remember biting into my first one. My mum helped an East German sailor, named Christian, defect from his ship while he was in Sri Lanka; the operation had been planned for years, and was finally executed with Jason Bourne–like precision. During the planning we would visit Christian’s ship in Colombo harbour and he’d invite us into his cabin, where he’d lavish us with German sausage, sweets, apples and oranges — flavours that would bur