Goa’s most authentic Crab Xacutti, with traditional spices and masalas – only at Souza Lobo

PANAJI: Before writing this piece on Goan crab xacutti, we tried, tasted and analysed the various adaptations and modifications of the xacutti gravy and particularly crab xacutti across the length and breadth of Goa to get a feel of the subject and the dish we were writing about.

Right from Pernem in the North, to Siolim, Saligao, St Cruz, Panjim, Ponda and Margao and finally Quepem and Canacona in the South, we must have tried out the xacutti at more than 100 restaurants (and even food carts) over a period of a few months.

Baring two or three places, including two restaurants in Panjim that served a decent portion of xacutti  with the taste and flavour about 70 per cent close to the original dish, the others were at best cheap duplicates – trying to pass off a dish, claiming it to be xacutti, without the real ingredients and spices or at best with mass-produced readymade masalas.

The xacutti what we got in Ponda, though pretty close, was unfortunately diluted with water, added to make it thinner – maybe to also make it cheaper.

There are a few food carts in Ponda as well as in Margao (near Bank of Baroda) and at Colva, that give you decent xacutti fare.

Most of them only do chicken and sometimes mutton xacutti. And although it is not the ultimate original, it is nearly 65 to 68 percent close to the original dish or traditional recipe – what we call the budget or economy version of the original Goan xacutti.

Another premium fine-dine restaurant in Panjim (we decided to skip mentioning the name) that claims to serve authentic Goan food, was disappointing when it came to Crab xacutti, although the other dishes particularly their seafood and recheado stuffed bangdo was pretty close enough to what we would term authentic Goan food.

Very few restaurants in Goa, less than what you could count on the fingers of one hand serve crab xacutti as part of their regular menu, though chicken and mutton xacutti is pretty common, even at the food cards.

So what makes the authentic Crab xacutti so elusive and difficult to get?

To begin with, the original Goan Xacutti gravy recipe, a curry prepared with complex spicing, including white poppy seeds, sliced or grated coconut and large dried red chilies has been adapted, modified and even vitiated over the years and is today mass-produced almost everywhere in Goa.

And with the year-round domestic tourist influx into the coastal state since the last decade, most cooks (a majority of them non-Goan) with no knowledge of Goan food, spices and masalas claim to be experts in making the xacutti.

The xacutti is usually prepared with chicken, lamb or beef and sometimes pork.

Crab xacutti and similar seafood preparations are also very popular and served at most exclusive or fine-dine Goan restaurants in the coastal state. But most of them barely manage to get close to the real thing. The main reason possibly being the cost and time factor.

Authentic xacutti masalas take a few hours to grind and prepare, something which most restaurants try to avoid, preferring to use readymade packaged options that are cheap imitations of the real xacutti masala.

Even the restaurants in 5-star hotels prefer to outsource traditional Goan masalas like the xacutti and cafreal masalas, due to the time and logistics involved in preparing them in their own kitchens.

This is where the Crab Xacutti at Souza Lobo – the iconic restaurant on the Calangute beach, comes in. It is the closet to the real thing or rather is the only real thing!

The Souza Lobo restaurant serves a variety of xacutti dishes that include seafood and chicken. The masala and spices used, as well as the method of cooking, it all together still adheres to the century-old (or even older) original recipe, with a few minor changes depending on the diner’s preferences.

Not to forget the other ingredients and raw materials like chicken, mutton or crabs, all of which are freshly sourced the same day. In fact, before they were cooked for our meal, the crabs were all live and kicking!

“We do the authentic, traditional xacutti gravy, but then there are customers who want it either spicier or less spicy and we accordingly modify the gravy, but our original xacutti gravy is an age-old recipe using more than 30 different ingredients, making it exclusive to Goa,” explains the owner, Jude Lobo.

Finally, of all the xacutti we tried and consumed across Goa, from Pernem to Canacona, baring a few restaurants (and the occasional food cart), none of them scored as highly as the dishes and gravies at Souza Lobo, which prides itself on its age-old traditional recipes and authentic Goan food made with the freshest ingredients.

Our Verdict: the Crab Xacutti at Souza Lobo was simply the best!

What we recommend: The Souza Lobo restaurant at Calangute is known across Goa (and India) for their fabulous flagship Recheado Pomfret, Recheado Prawns, Recheado King Prawns, Recheado Bangdo, Recheado Squids and the recently introduced experimental or fusion food – Recheado Prawn Parathas, Cafreal Kulchas, Sorpotel Naans and Crab Kulchas.

They also make the best (and authentic Goan) Chicken Xacuti (Read Here) as well as Crab Xacuti  (Read Here) in all of Goa. The chicken cafreal at Souza Lobo is also the best in Goa and depending on your budget and available time, we highly recommend you try all the dishes.