Goan restaurants sans Goan food: Where has the authentic Goan food gone?

PANAJI: For Mumbai-based Tv personality and chef Sonya Kaur, feasting on authentic and traditional Goan food is a must – at least a few times a year, when ever she visits the coastal state.

And time and work permitting. the otherwise globe-trotting biz woman makes it a point to try out Goan food at the various restaurants in Goa every time she is here, which is about once every two months.

However, she has a new list of complaints each time she dines at a Goan outlet, both in North or South Goa, with the list getting bigger by the day.

“Unfortunately, most restaurants in North Goa, particularly in the coastal belt are dishing out greatly modified, distorted and vitiated versions of what they claim to be authentic Goan food. Except for the Souza Lobo restaurant at Calangute, in North Goa, which serves authentic, traditional Goan food, made with recipes and masalas that are genuinely Goan; and a couple of other places, most restaurants in Goa, today serve a 2020 fast-food version of Goan food,” laments Kaur.

“Except for the Souza Lobo restaurant at Calangute, which serves authentic, traditional Goan food, painstakingly made with recipes and masalas that are genuinely age-old Goan fare; and a couple of other places, most restaurants in Goa, today serve a 2020 fast-food version of Goan food,” laments Kaur.

“It’s so disappointing, when you ask for Chicken Xacutti or Cafreal at a fine-dine Goan restaurant, hoping to get genuine Goan xacutti gravy (or Cafreal), but only to figure out as you dig into the food, that the dish you are served is made with a readymade brand of masala mix, easily available across the country,” complains Kaur, saying that this must stop and Goans must ensure that Goan food is not distorted or modified.

Even the original Goan recheado masalas are replaced by cheap imitations in packets manufactured in Mumbai and Delhi, Kaur claims, saying that the mass-produced, packed imitation masalas are much cheaper and quicker when it comes to cooking.

According to Kaur, “there must be a system to ensure that when you say authentic Goan, it must be really authentic Goan and given the differences in the local styles  – the Hindu and Catholic styles of Goan food, the masalas must not be distorted or a cheap copy of the original.”

“Even the original Goan recheado masalas are replaced by cheap imitations in packets manufactured in Mumbai and Delhi,” Kaur claims, saying that the mass-produced, packed imitation masalas are much cheaper and quicker when it comes to cooking.

Even other traditional Goan masalas and recipes like the sorpotel, ambotik, recheado and cafreal are imitated by the wholesale packing industry, which is producing these imitation masalas for mass market consumption even abroad, thus killing the original traditional flavor and taste of Goan food, she says.

Asked to describe herself and her work as a chef, Sonya says, she is a Punjabi by blood who loves sea-food and particularly Goan food and in Mumbai experiments with fusion preparations that merge cultures and traditions.

All the same, she also swears by authentic, undiluted cuisines and traditional food, made the way our forefathers and great grandmothers did.

Professionally, my work as a chef in Mumbai requires me to experiment with flavours, spices, masalas and other items and give my diners a variety of dishes depending on their personal preferences, she explains.