(So you may wonder why the men in pants comment? This refers to the extremely confusing sight of seeing skinny men in their underpants walking hand in hand along the beaches. Just what was going on? All the women were fully clothed while bathing in the sea, but the men unashamedly wandered around in their baggy y-fronts. We later found out that it is OK for men to show some nudity but not women and the hand in hand gesture just means they are friends. We began to understand why many young boys would approach bikini clad holiday makers and ask if they could take their photograph. Not many girls, including myself, said yes. Where on Earth would the photograph end up)?
5 Perspectives on Indian food
Part 3. India
And so finally I got to visit India. Goa to be exact, a tourist bubble and not exactly the adventurous side of the country. It was a fairly cheap package tour, however and not to be missed. It was a revelation. Neil and I were expecting warm seas, beautiful sandy beaches (some felt and looked like sugar), wonderful, hospitable people, glorious old churches, crazy culture, chaos...and we got it all, but the real highlight was the food. Here, the food was the epitome of everything I love about the cuisine of this country. Meat on the bone, rich, luxurious sauces, whole spices, prawns the size of lobsters, spicy, tangy, refreshing salads and vegetables..I could go on. It truly was the best food experience of any country I have been to.
Goa was previously a Portuguese colony and the influence of that country still permeates the food, (just as China has a huge influence on Thai food). Vindaloo, for example, is a Portuguese influenced dish. The Vin refers to vinegar which is used to sharpen and sour the curry to create a balance and although it is fairly hot, it is not supposed to be so blistering that you cannot taste the meat or spices. This dish originated from the Portuguese Carne de Vinha d'Alhos, which was typically pork with wine & garlic. The Goans added spice and swapped the wine for vinegar resulting in the dish that is so popular today. I ate a prawn version at a restaurant called Brittas on the beach. Overlooking the pristine, azure ocean, eating a delectable curry and being nudged by the waiters who, through the sides of their mouth would tell us 'such and such', the Bollywood star was sitting across the room. Occasionally a cow would walk past.
There was the 'Captain's chicken curry' I ate at our closest restaurant, serenaded by beautiful sitars and singers, the chicken, nearly always thigh, falling off the bone. Neil ate a crab curry and was a little disconcerted to find the crab complete with shell. I had to pluck the meat out for him, but it was sweet, spicy and rich.
There was the night we went to Taste of Goa, which we luckily chose on the last night of their season, (we went to Goa in April, the final two weeks of package flights before the monsoons would close the resorts), and I ate a curry so rich with coriander it was a vivid, lime green. The proprietor was a very happy man, no doubt because he was about to take his own vacation and sang to every table in the restaurant, finally presenting us all with a shell with Goa engraved into it. We asked for 'Wonderful tonight' and listened as we sipped our Kingfishers, very content.
One day, we stayed for lunch at the hotel. I ordered a Biryani and can quite honestly say it was the best I have ever tasted. Prepared by the Eminem loving 17 year old chef, it was full of cardamoms, cloves, cinnamon, delicate Basmati fragrant with saffron and large prawns and chicken. It didn't need the usual UK accompaniment of an omelet and curry sauce, it was perfect completely unadorned. We became friendly with the young hotel staff with us being the only guests in the hotel for the last few days and whenever a mango or coconut would fall from one of the huge crow laden trees, they would bring it to us. The coconut with a straw and the mango sliced to reveal its orange flesh.
One snack we discovered here was the 'papad'. A flexible poppadom used as a wrapping for a mixture of shrimp, onion, chili and garlic. This is then folded like an envelope and deep fried until crispy and golden. They are usually served as an appetizer and we snacked on them at a beachfront cafe, sipping cold Kingfishers, listening to Air and gazing out at the violent waves of the Ocean crashing in, knocking people over. Trying to recreate these at home is difficult. The poppadoms are always too stiff and no amount of soaking really makes them pliable enough. Best to enjoy there, I think.
Goa was the first time Neil and I were brave enough to hire a scooter and explore the state under our own steam, at first visiting a turtle sanctuary which required a little ferry ride and secondly, being a little more adventurous, a night-time seafood festival in the state capital Panjim. I can honestly say that I remember very little seafood. I do remember tightly clutching an extra large Kingfisher, (the top of which was smashed as we had no other way to open it) and drinking it is as quickly as possible to try and get drunk enough to feel calmer about the drive back on the crazy roads. I also remember 'The Wall of Death', performed by two Indian guys in shiny, green shirts with no helmets, first on a motorbike and then in a Volkswagen Golf.
The British celebrity chef Rick Stein summed Goa up in his book "Seafood Odyssey". He said:
"I could take anything Goa would throw at me if the food was as good as this" I concur.
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