Hard-Core Prawnography

Vizag is India’s seafood capital, accounting for a quarter of the country’s seafood exports, and sending its wonderful tiger prawns, lobsters, king-fish, pomfret and cuttle-fish to Japan and the US. Which means that for a seafood freak, this is the closest thing to heaven.

Bamboo Bay is probably the best restaurant in town, set in a sprawling, palm-fringed garden on the beach. It’s designed by the maverick Australian-Balinese designer, Michael White aka Bapak Wijaya, who has used simple local materials and themes: coconut matting, bamboo, tribal motifs and tropical foliage. We sat outside, under an enormous yellow moon. The tiger prawns were huge, like some terrifying alien monsters out of a Ridley Scott movie. And they were so fresh one could almost taste the sea air. The menu covers coastal Andhra, Chettinad and Hyderabadi cuisine, but with seafood as fresh as this, we find the idea of masala slightly sacrilegious. We recommend their tiger prawns "naked"—lightly sauteed, with just a hint of onion and garlic to bring out the flavour. And, yes, a seafood platter to give you a sampler from the Bay of Bengal, which thunders a few yards away.