How to find local Goan food and tavern in Panjim

It is a breezy and cloudy August day. Equipped with two umbrellas and wearing walking shoes, we wait by the Panjim Post Office. We are ready to “find” local Goan food in Panjim. In about 5 minutes Binita arrives riding a scooty. She greets us and gives an orientation by the gates of the Post Office. We have signed up for the “Secret Food and Tavern Trail in Panjim” – a walking tour, from the portal of Soul Travelling. We are also joined by two other members of team Soul Travelling.

I have signed up for this tour in my search to see “offbeat Goa”. I was sure Goa is much more than crowded beaches, headache-inducing noise of bass and unlimited alcohol. In April I had already taken the Floating Feni experience and it had opened a whole new side of Goa to me. My curiousity has increased manifold.

We turn out to be very lucky. The two of us are being guided by 3 guides, all of them locals to the state. Binita, who is at the helm of this tour, starts with the history of Goa. Then she also talks about the geography — the oddity of river Mandovi in particular. This gushing river flowing by Panjim has never flooded the city in recorded history.

Sampling local Goan food in Panjim

Then the discussion turns to the subject matter of the walking trail—local Goan food. She explains the origin of cafreal and xacuti, two very popular dishes of Goa. We walk to the first pitstop of our tour – a family run restaurant that is standing since 1913. Back in the days, this plush restaurant used to be just a small tea joint. In the 100+ years of its existence, the restaurant has added floors to the building and increased the menu. Currently the 6^th generation of the family is running the restaurant.

Here Binita introduces me to a food that is to become one of my favourite foods ever—banana bun and mix bhaji. The banana bun is much like what we Bengalis call luchi (puri in Hindi) but with a sweet twist. They are made with banana and yoghurt so they are remarkably sweet. They look yellowish, much like the colour of the banana. A few months later, in Saroj Veg Restaurant in the Chembur neighbourhood of Mumbai I come across “Mangalore buns”—I think it is the same as the banana bun of Goa.

These puffy buns are to be enjoyed with mix bhaji or mixed vegetable curry. Binita informs me that in households of Goa it is a common practice to eat the leftover curry from the last night’s dinner. It is enjoyed with these buns or simple breads.

As the conversation turns to breads, Josh(another Soul Travelling guide who was with us) comes up with anecdotes on the poder. Men who sell breads doorstep-to-doorstep early in the morning are called poder in Goa. “The call of the poder used to wake us up in the morning. With the first call of the poder in the neighbourhood, everyone would rush out of the house to buy the best bread. It was almost like a competition,” says Josh.

It seems like any story on local Goan food cannot exist without the poder. Back in the days, the poders used to bring bread in a basket on foot. With time they upgraded to bicycle carts. To keep themselves relevant after the online shopping revolutions they have changed their ways yet again. Now they perch themselves at busy street corners at strategic times of the day. On my request, our guides even take us to a poder later and we end up buying some bread from him.

Binita shares how she used to wear the kankonn(a type of bread shaped as a bangle) as a bangle when she was a child. I realise the poder has played an integral part in shaping their childhood, and this is probably true for most Goans as well. The nostalgia was visible in their eyes, audible in their tones. I am grateful that they have let me take a sneak peek into their childhood memories. I see the 90s Goa through their stories.

“It was not always like this,” says Josh. The topic at hand now is the thumping of bass and the noise pollution they create. They say the nuisance has started from 2012, and since 2014 the nuisance just kept on increasing at an increasing rate.

The clock ticks on so we leave the restaurant and go to a bakery that is standing in Panjim since 1920. Here we sample some Goan sweets—doce, bolinhas and boll. Doce is a sweet made of coconut, chana daal and sugar. It tastes somewhat like the Bengali sweet chandrapuli! We had tried it once before in April at the Floating Feni experience.

Bol is made from coconut jaggery, coconut and millet and flavoured with spices like cardamom. It tastes somewhat like the Bengali sweet dish pithe. Bolinha is a crunchy cookie made with coconuts.

As we munch on these sweets, the stories follow. Doce and boll are staple wedding gifts that the bride’s family gives the groom’s families. Bolinhas is a must during Christmas. Families come together in Christmas and put in team work to cook batches of bolinha. We discussed much about the other Goan sweets and places we can buy them.

Time for something to drink

Just when we leave the bakery a short spell of shower catches us on the streets. But when the company is great, these do not matter. We have experienced local Goan food, now it’s time for some beverage. We reach a small nondescript shop for a special kind of soda. Our guides engross us with stories and histories of the soda-bottle. Invention of soda, how it became so famous, its journey to India and its role in the Bombay riots of 1992. We even get to see an old machine that was used to seal those controversial caps of the soda bottles!

The shopowner is lovingly referred to as Kaka. His soda recipe is his trade secret. Here our group gets even larger. We are joined by Josh’s elder brother.

We then walk through the lanes of the most colourful part of Panjim— Fontainhas. Binita keeps us engaged by narrating the tales about these lanes. Every alley, every house has stories. They point out some oyster shell windows, a feature of the Portuguese-era architecture and of course some stories, histories and memories follow. Navigating the lanes on foot we finally arrive at our last stop, the one I was looking forward to the most—a tavern or watering hole to sip some feni.

The tavern culture is unique to Goa. The literal translation of tavern would be “thyek” in Bengali, however, this literal translation does not do it justice. It is a much more nuanced affair. Alcohol in Goa has always been an integral part of the daily Goan life. The tavern used to be a place where people could go to grab a pint and socialise over it. The key difference between a tavern and a ‘thyek’ would be that mostly Goans know how to handle their alcohol, they drink responsibly, and there is no caste and class discrimination. Unfortunately, these things cannot be said about the thyek scene in Bengal. Slowly the advent of pubs and bars have replaced the tavern culture but some still hang on by a thread. The millennials and Gen-Z are making taverns trend again.

We are in one such tavern. This place is oozing with youthful energy. In the heart of the most touristy area of Panjim, this tavern stands in a semi-dilapidated building and they pay a monthly rent of only INR 200. The answer to the ‘Why the rent is so low’ is an answer loaded with history and politics. I hope you go on this tour and find the answer yourself!

Meanwhile the owner(I think his name is Gundu) greets me with a red rose and the bartender brings out feni-infused cocktails for us. On this merry note our walking tour in Panjim ends.

Details:

• Price– INR 1299 per head (includes food and drink)
• Duration– 3 hours
• Location– Starting point is at the Post Office of Panjim
• How to book– Send enquiry from Soul Travelling’s website.

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