Dishing out magical flavours from the Goan kitchen

Taste is subjective, but the cuisine of each state, or even each ward of a state, is unique and this is the trend worldwide. When compared with other countries, India beats most in cuisine because the flavours change within kilometers.

India is a country that fits in a million cauldrons on one fire pit and that is why the taste varies within kilometers. This is a country with a million cuisines – each one dishing its own magic through the hands of its inhabitants.

Cuisine in Goa follows a similar trend with an influence that is quite a bit Western due to the presence of the Portuguese here. After all, 450 odd years is a long time for us not to have soaked in the culinary flavours of that country.

The bhaji served in a restaurant in Canacona will be different from one served in Pernem, and yet, the taste will be Goan and that taste is best determined by the amount of salt used whilst cooking.

'As dear as salt' is an old saying that still holds true today because the essence of cooking is the amount of salt used, and it has been used in various proportions in different families living in this part of India.

'There must be something strangely sacred in salt. It is in our tears and in the sea,' Kahlil Gibran once wrote, and whatever it is, one strange truth is that salt defines our personality through taste.

We have enjoyed salt in the past, and despite medical warning signs on the consumption of salt, it is still our favourite. And, one loved dish is salt fish – the way it is prepared is inconsequential.

Food in Goa is a mixture of bland and spicy, with those that grew up under the influence of the Portuguese opting for the bland, and others taking the spice route.

But, in general, Goan food is about taste, and the taste that flows from the hands that cook it.

Through the ages, our food was the artifact of our hands, through which flowed emotions, and the mood of the cook best explained the taste of what was being eaten.

Restaurants in Goa had unique tastes. In those days, O'Coqueiro had the taste of then proprietor Gines Viegas; Haystack had the flavour of August Braganza, Bar Salcette had the whack of Felix Viegas. With them disappeared the flavours, never to be recreated by anyone.

Food in Goa is changing, and it is because there are few Goan hands ready to be in the kitchen these days. Dignity of labour has disguised itself when it comes to cooking, and there are few Goans opting to lead from the kitchen.

It took time for the first tourists who came to Goa to appreciate Goan cuisine. But when they did, it never stopped. In fact, the demand for Goan food grew, and with that, the number of restaurants.

Most of the food was home food or cooked in restaurants by people who learnt to cook at home. And, home food is always the best or tastiest. There were semi-skilled cooks who adorned the best kitchens back then.

With the change in tourists, there has been a change in the kitchens with Goan food now not being the top draw amongst visitors.

Indian food, or Chinese food made by Indians, is much in demand and like other places in India, street food is fast growing.

Finding a tea shop serving a typical Goan breakfast – bhaji, puri, batatawada, mirchi – is a rarity in Goa today. There are just handfuls in the cities, a few in villages, but they are a rarity along the coastal belt.

The taste is changing from salty to tangy, or a mix of lemon and spice, and with many preferring to eat less and drink more, the experiment with food in Goa has reached a different level – one best explained by our visitors.