Goan Food and Drinks

The Goan culture is rooted, among other things, in enjoyment of tastey food and drink. One can never forget the taste of his mothers yummy sorpotel and the aroma of a tempting peg of feni.

Goan cooking involves a perfect amount of spices, too, giving dishes a unique taste and aroma. The mostly used indegrents include cumin, coriander, chilies, garlic and turmeric. And yes to add flavour to the goan fish curry is kokum. and Ofcourse how can one forget of the yummy mouth watering vindaloo and balchao being some of the most famous.

For the main course of the meal, seafood of all varieties is eaten, and pork and chicken are the most commonly used meats. The Portuguese influence in goan cooking cannot be ignored. Dishes such as racheiado, caldeirada and cabidela reflect the legacy of the state's colonial heritage.

Seafood

Goa is famous for its seafood, the 'Goan Dish' being fish curry and rice. With the variety and range on offer, however, combined with the skills of the local cooks, there is a mouthwatering choice. Kingfisher and Bello is probably the most common item, on the menu, but there are many others including pomfret, doumer, shark, tuna and mackerel. Among the excellent shellfish available are crabs, prawns, tiger prawns and lobster.

Various beach shacks and restaurants present seafood lightly spiced, or without spices at all. In this case the food is generally either fried, grilled or cooked in garlic sauce. Traditional Goan cooking methods, however, generally involve seasoning the seafood in some way.

Among the most famous Goan dishes is ambot tik, a slightly sour curry dish which can be prepared with either fish or meat, but more usually fish. Caldeirada is a mildly flavored offering in which fish or prawns are cooked into a kind of stew with vegetables, and often flavored with wine. Racheiado is a delicious preparation in which a whole fish, usually a mackerel or pomfret, is slit down the center and stuffed with a spicy red sauce, after which it is cooked normally. Balchao is a method of cooking either fish or prawns in a dark red and tangy sauce. Because of the preservative qualities of the sauce, balchao can be cooked in advance and reheated upto four days after preparation. Rissois are snacks or starters, which are made from prawns, fried in pastry shells.

Meats
Sorpotel is one of Goa's most famous meat dishes, and is prepared from pork, liver, heart and kidney, all of which are diced and cooked in a thick and very spicy sauce favored with feni. Sorpotel, like balchao, keeps for several days, and is actually considered to taste better if left for three to four days before being reheated. Xacuti is a traditional way of preparing meat, usually chicken, by cooking it in coconut milk, and adding grated coconut and a variety of spices. The result is mild curry, but with a distinctive and delicious flavor.

Chouricos are spicy pork sausages, which owe more than a passing debt to Portuguese culinary traditions. Goan sausages are prepared used well salted and spiced cubes of pork. Once they have been made, the strings of sausages are dried in the sun and then hung above the fire where they are gradually smoked. Traditionally they are eaten during the monsoon, when fish is scarce. In preparation, they are soaked in water and then usually fried and served with a hot sauce and rice.

Cafrial is a method of preparation, usually used with chicken, in which the meat is marinated in a sauce of chilies, garlic and ginger and then dry-fried. The result is rather dry, but spicy dish.

Breads
Bakers regularly do the rounds of each village in Goa, pushing bicycles laden with fresh bread and either rings a bell or hooting a horn on the handlebars to let the villagers know they've arrived. There are several types of local bread. Uned as small round crusty rolls, which are usually served fresh from the bakery, and an ideal alternative to rice when eating, say, a sorpotel. Particularly famous and unique in goa are sanna, which are steamed rolls made with rice flour, ground coconut and coconut toddy, which are ideal to eat with any of the spicy Goan dishes.

Sweets

The most Loved Goa's sweetmeats is bebinca, a wonderful concoction made from layer upon layer of coconut pancakes.

Dodol is also a famous Goan sweet, traditionally eaten at Christmas time, and made with rice flour, coconut milk, jaggery and cashew nuts.

Drinks

Goan drink Feni

There are two types of feni
Coconut or palm feni is made from the sap drawn from the severed shoots on a coconut tree. In Goa this is known as toddy, and the men who collect it are toddy taper's. Toddy tappers at work are common sight; crouched in the canopy of the palm tree, they collect the terra-cotta pot, which has filled with creamy white sap, then trim the shoots to facilitate further collection. Tie a new pot over the top, and descend to move into the next tree. Toddy can be collected year-round, and thus palm feni is in plentiful supply at all times.

Cashew or caju feni, on the other hand, can only be made during the cashew season in late March and early April.


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