Pan-Fried Bhetki

Bhetki is firm, mild and forgiving of a hot pan, and it is the fish Bengal and coastal Odisha reach for when the flesh has to hold its shape. It is cooked whole here rather than filleted: marinated, then pan-fried until the skin takes colour and the inside stays wet.

It comes out plated rather than family-style, with lime, raw onion and a papad, which are there to cut it rather than to dress it up. The Verandah is the Chinese room at Heritage, built in the shape of a balcony and glazed down one side, and this is the plate where its technique meets what is landed a few hundred metres away.