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The rich and the famous from India and abroad have dined here. It’s fame precedes it, but how many would know that Martins Corner at Betalbatim in South Goa opened in 1989, with just two benches. It did and the family business grew to become an ambassador of Goan cuisine simply because the family stayed together.
They started small but the cooking and their thinking has seen the restaurant in Goa become a much sought after corner for people from across the world. The guests in those early years were taxi drivers who, in time, brought their guests for a meal and the word that began to spread then has not yet stopped.
Martin’s is unique not just because of its food but the way the family comprising the mother, her three sons and their wives bond together. From the beginning, it has been the hand of Carafina Pereira that has caressed the food before it is served and that has guided the family.
“Our secret lies in the hands of our mother. It is her masala that is special and, believe me, had we started selling just the masala and closed the restaurant, we would have earned more,” says a jovial Pobre Pereira, elder son of Carafina.
Cooking has been their mother’s forte from the beginning and so has been the way she has bonded her family. “We could have started more restaurants but have not because it is our mother’s wish to see us together till she is alive and we grew up listening to her,” confesses Pobre.
Except for Good Friday, the restaurant is open throughout the year with guests streaming in even before opening time. Unlike any restaurant in Goa, Martins has a kitchen that is equipped with the latest including two freezers found only in seven-star kitchens.
Whilst the mother and second brother Joe look after the kitchen, the onus of shopping falls on Pobre and youngest Bonny looks after finance, sales and stockpiling of the bar.
The day at Martins begins when 76-year-old Carafina enters the kitchen around eight in the morning and starts with her spiritual rituals. The sons follow along with their wives and go with the adage – a family that prays together, stays together.
Having hit culinary heights, the Pereiras are looking beyond money through an outreach in trying to save whatever little is left of Goa. “We realised that it was difficult to get good vinegar or find good coconut feni. So we searched till we found a place where we could produce organic vinegar and distil the best coconut feni,” discloses Pobre, as the smell of vinegar engulfs the room when the bottle is opened.
“We push the toddy drinks in our restaurant because we want our guests to know and recognise our traditional drinks. The idea is to give a taste of Goa of our traditional booze that is fast disappearing from our shelves,” confesses Pobre.
The menu at Martins is exhaustive but the taste swirls round the mixture of spices that only the family is aware of. That is why, the ‘king crab masala fry’, once described by Sachin Tendulkar as his favourite at the restaurant, sets the kitchen on a run.
From trying to keep alive the spirits of Goa, the Pereira brothers have tried their hands at trying to rejuvenate interest in farming amongst their fellow villagers and the crop yield attained by the Betalbatim Farmers Club, that was started by them, is evidence of it.
“The rice served and the vegetables used are from the fields sown in our village where initially only 30 percent were involved in farming. Now 70 percent are,” beams Pobre.
The Pereiras have turned their home into a restaurant with a modern kitchen with 300 covers. They have also opened a hotel called Martins Comfort nearby, but for the family, comfort lies in the fact that family is first and money is a conduit to living.