O Coqueiro, tickling Goan palates since 1970s

Porvorim, today a bustling urban sprawl but once screaming rural, has from the 1970s onwards been synonymous with the O Coqueiro restaurant, which can't escape the eyes on the busy NH-66.

For its patrons, regulars and old timers, the place is linked to the memories of Gines Viegas, one of the greatest Goan hands in the kitchen.

O Coqueiro, or Coqueiro, as it is now known was always about eating tasty food with a smile, a few jokes, a few drinks and smokes. And the story continues, even years after the passing away of Viegas.

In the 1970s, wedding dates were decided depending on the availability of Pascoal, the numero uno catering chef of those days, and a visit to Goa was incomplete without a meal at O Coqueiro.

The coconut, Viegas would say, is one tree whose every part could be used and in that way, O Coqueiro was one restaurant whose every dish had an indelible mark of good experimentation.

If food and seeing his guest satiated were Viegas’s first loves, attending each football World Cup was his second, though had the World Cup been an annual event, it could have been his first.

From serving the best food to organising uninterrupted international phone calls for clients, to even hosting weddings, O Coqueiro did it all, and even went a step beyond when Charles Sobhraj, after a prison escape, was nicked while dining at the restaurant.

Chicken cafreal was a specialty of the place and according to Viegas, who in times past would recount, the spices used were simple: salt, some chili and pepper.

Labourers in a province of Portugal would carry salt, chilies and pepper, catch a foul, kill it and marinate the flesh till lunch time before cooking it over lighted twigs. Whatever the story, the cafreal from O Coqueiro is closest to this story.

Stuffed crabs, prawn-stuffed papad, beef chilly fry, pork chops, were some of the other specialties of the place that slowly crept into many home cuisines in those long past days, mainly because Viegas loved to share his recipes, especially with the wives of his friends.

O Coqueiro today is not a far cry of what it was when Viegas was alive. The food is still local and good with tastes tweaked to that of tourists by locals trained to keep alive the tradition of rich food.

“We have a lot of tourists visiting us, to get a feel of the Sobhraj incident and to taste Goan food. It is true that Sobhraj took a lot of our charm but luckily he did not rob our recipes,” jokes manager John Monseratte.

“We have locals dropping in for lunch or dinner because we have maintained the essence of our food. The owner not only loved to cook but eat too, I was told, and we keep to his credence,” admits Monseratte.

Samarachi  Kadi (a traditional Goan curry), a dish that is best explained when eaten, is rarely found in most restaurants and is another best of this place because it is still best cooked here. Beef O Coqueiro is tenderloin grilled with a dash of salt and pepper and served well done, medium or rare. The juice that flows can take you closest to Portugal.

“The nice part of the place is that the standards of cooking and hospitality are maintained. Despite the absence of Gines for the last so many years, his memories still float around,” reminiscences Odette, who has been brought there by three generations of her family to celebrate her birthday.

If every part of a coconut can be put to use, O Coqueiro is one of the few restaurants in Goa that has since 1968 tickled every corner of a guest’s palate.