Tamil Comfort Food

The sun is just starting to rise as we leave Jaffna town and drive across a long narrow causeway to the island of Kayts. From here we will join another causeway that will take us to Punkudutivu Island. The surrounding water is a maze of fish traps, gliding wooden canoes and fishermen wading chest-deep in the water, retrieving the night’s catch. The effect is hypnotic and even the spirals of razor-sharp barbed wire poking up from the water don’t break my trance.

As we drive onto Kayts, the water is replaced by flat, dry grasslands and windswept palmyra palms. We pass a number of bombed-out, abandoned houses and stop at a sandstone villa overrun by vines and tree roots. The front door is missing, but the stone archway entrance invites me in. Inside are reminders of a life from long ago: a rusty wrought-iron bed frame, a bent metal chair and a collection of large blackened cooking pots.