The menu on our cruise boats is sparse but distinctive. Your meals are prepared by the boatmen in local manner. This means food with lots of fresh flavours and a minimum of frills, cooked with tangy spices and plenty of coconut. Needless to say, fish is the mainstay of this menu. Sometimes caught fresh from the lake, it is marinated in red chilies, ginger and lime, before being grilled. Accompaniments can include lentils and gourd cooked with fresh pepper and mustard seeds, served with greens handpicked from the little markets that dot the canals on the cruise and steaming bowls of rice.