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For gourmets, Goa is another name for a diner’s paradise. Pushpesh Pant gives us the recipe to make vindaloo, the most famous dish of the land of sun-drenched beaches
Not even the all-conquering British could displace the Portuguese for the next four and a half centuries from this tract of land. For most people the word Goa conjures up visions of sun-drenched beaches with waves after waves of lush green coconut palms swaying in the breeze, but there are some of us for whom the land is just another name for a diner’s paradise. Why keep drooling for long—this is the place where one can partake of exotic delicacies like vindaloo, sorpotel and xacuti. And wash down the goodies with heady feni.
What we tend to overlook often is that Goan cuisine is one of the most fascinating results of fusion anywhere in the world. Even before touching our shores, the Portuguese had imbibed a diversity of culinary influences. The Moors had introduced them to the aromatic flavours of Central Asia and the conquistadors had brought back with them the edible bounty from the New World—chillies, potatoes, chocolate and more. The unique blending, accomplished by the Portuguese in their kitchen, lent their recipes an unusual complexity—subtle and seductive. When they settled down in Goa they had to make do with substitutes for many of the traditional ingredients with what was locally available. In some cases the results were, we daresay, even better than the original. The recipes of the sailor merchants were enriched by incorporation of local tastes and practices. The natives, too, adopted some of the imports as their own. Wine vinegar and garlic-laced vindaloo is an excellent illustration of this. The named is a corruption of the original vinho e alhos (wine, vinegar and garlic), itself the abridged form of carne de vinho e alhos (translated as meat cooked with wine vinegar and garlic). In Goa the dish is always made with pork but as many Indians don’t eat this meat, it is not uncommon to prepare vindaloo with chicken. Recently we sampled this dish at the Goa food stall and can testify without hesitation that it retains its familiar charm. An adventurous vegetarian friend reassures us that he has replicated the vindaloo successfully with zimikand! Who are we to dispute; it is all in the name, in this case vinho e alhos—all else must play second fiddle. |
WHEN
Vasco Da Gama landed on the Malabar Coast and claimed to have
"discovered" India, he opened the gates for his compatriots to
colonise this tract of land.