Food spot: Dal-chawal in Goa

One of our nicest meals was in Café Venite in Panaji. Apart from the food, you have to visit the restaurant for its interiors – the colourful graffiti on the wall and beer bottles that act as chandeliers.

October 24, 2014 04:46 pm | Updated May 23, 2016 05:31 pm IST

Panaji and other places in South Goa also offer magical experiences. Photos: Afreen Sen Chatterjee and Rahul Verma

Panaji and other places in South Goa also offer magical experiences. Photos: Afreen Sen Chatterjee and Rahul Verma

When I was a young boy growing up in Delhi, I enjoyed watching some parts of the Republic Day Parade. And what I liked the most was the Goa tableau, which, year after year, was a delightful mix of music and fun. The float was always accompanied by these men wearing hats and carrying guitars, singing a foot-tapping Konkani song. That is the spirit of Goa that most appeals to me – symbolising the multifaceted culture of the State.

And nowhere is this more evident than in the cuisine of Goa. You can eat your pork vindaloo – which is a legacy of the Portuguese who ruled Goa (I am told it’s derived from the word vinh d’alho). You can have your mackerel or bangda in alle kande ambat, cooked with ginger and onion. Because of the large community of tourists and settlers, you get various kinds of world cuisines as well – including the Burmese rice salad (thamin let toke) prepared with papaya, dried shrimp and fish sauce at a restaurant called Bomra’s. And we even spotted a sign for an eatery called Babumoshai which claimed to serve Bengali food.

One of the tragedies of life is that you can only have three big meals. And since breakfast is mostly in-house, you can only try out five or six restaurants while you are in Goa. Last week, I wrote about some of the great meals we had in the north; this week I shall tell you about magical experiences in Panaji and southwards.

One of our nicest meals was in Café Venite in Panaji. Apart from the food, you have to visit the restaurant for its interiors – the colourful graffiti on the wall and beer bottles that act as chandeliers. The dishes that we ate included baked crab, grilled prawns, pork chops, tenderloin steaks and mashed potatoes and veggies. The food was superb, barring, sadly, my pork chops, which were a bit hard.

We landed up at Martins Corner in Betalbatim the next day for lunch. This time I asked for pork vindaloo – and was happy with the spicy dish. The others had prawn coconut curry with rice, pork chops (this time nice and tender), fried Bombay duck, tenderloin stew (which was excellent) and okra caldine which was smooth and creamy – and simply out of this world.

We ordered our dinner from Mi Casa in Siridao – which offers the most delicious of seafood and Goan dishes at the most affordable of rates. We ate a whole lot of fried king fish (with or without a rawa coating) and spicy Goan sausages curries. A meal consisting of three plates of fried prawns, three plates of fried king fish, one prawn curry rice, one chicken xacuti, one vegetable caldine, two dal fries, one plate of fried goan sausages and caldo verde (a vegetable soup) came for Rs.2700.

It was a superb food fest in Goa. But I have to confess something. On the last day, I called up a young friend who used to be in Delhi and now lives in Goa. Where does one get dal and chawal, I asked him in a whisper. He laughed and asked me to visit Infantaria in Calangute-Baga. Infantaria offers good Goan and western dishes – so the others didn’t mind. We went there for lunch and had a happy meal – consisting of grilled prawns and garlic butter prawns – and dal and chawal.

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