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Explore Goa
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| ▪ Goa Sea Food |
| Goa is a gourmet's paradise, with the overall quality of food being excellent. Seafood in particular is a gastronomic treat. The choice of seafood, often cooked in fragrant masalas, is excellent - Clams, Mussels, Crab, Lobster, Giant Prawns. Try Ape de Camarao, a spicy prawn pie with a rice and Semolina crust. Sannam, like the south Indian iddli, is a steamed cake of fermented rice flour, but here fermented with palm Toddy (also spelt as Todi). Sweet tooths will adore Bebinca, a rich, delicious solid Egg Custard with coconut, a layered sweet, Doce, Ale Bete, Bathique, Cocado and Bulinos. Large proportions of dishes and deserts contain coconut in them. |
| ▪ Eating Habbits |
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. Curries It is prepared daily with boiled rice. The taste and flavour of Goan curries are enhanced by adding red chilly and the milk of the coconut kernel. There are varieties of curries like Fish curry, chicken curry, meat curry and plain coconut curry. |
| . Pastries |
| There are lots of them, Pastries are almost a part of every common meals as well as occasion and feasts in Goa. Christmas and the Ganesh Festival are occasions when they are prepared in all their varieties. However, the queen of the delicacies is the BEBINCA. It is made of eggs, pure ghee, flour, coconut milk and sugar. Other Goan pastries would include Doce, Cokad, Dodol, Bolinhas and Jia de Aronhas. |
| . Rice Dishes |
| Rice is an important item of Goan diet. One will find it at every table and almost at every meal. Rice is eaten with delicious fish or meat curry, or in the form of "Pulao", and many other ways. |
| . Feni |
| A rocket - fuel spirit distilled either from the cashew fruits or the coconut sap. Feni preparation is in fact a cottage industry in Goa and feni is brewed in many a house. There is also a milder variety called "Urraca". |
| . Xacutti |
| It is a curry made of chicken, or lamb or pigeon and sometimes of turtle-dove. It is pungent, spicy and delicious. It is generally eaten with the local wheat or rice bread and (for men) preferably washed down with feni. |
| . Fruits |
| When it comes to fruits Goa have the Pineapple, the Melon, the Banana, the Pawpaw, the Custard Apple etc., but surpassing them all is the Mango, - but the sweetest, the most luscious and the most ravishing in taste, are the Alphonso, the Fernandina and the Malcorada, and without exaggeration, the best in the world |
| ▪ Cocktails |
| Goan Port, a sweeter, interior version of its Portuguese namesake, is ubiquitous, served chilled in large wine glasses with a slice of lemon. Local whiskies, brandies, rums, gins and vodkas come in a variety of brand names come at affordable prices a shot. |
| ▪ Portuguese Delicacies |
| Goan cooking has absorbed a strong Portuguese influence. Palm vinegar, copious amounts of Coconut, Garlic, Tangy Tamarind and fierce local chillies all play their part. Goa is the home of the famous vindaloo (from the Portuguese vinho d' alho, literally "garlic wine"), originally an extra-hot and sour pork curry, but now made with a variety of meat and fish. Other pork specialities include chourico red sausages, sorpotel, a hot curry made from pickled pig's liver and heart, leitao, suckling pig, and balchao, pork in a rich brown sauce. Delicious alternatives include vinegar chicken, spicy chicken or mutton xacutti, made with a sauce of lemon juice, peanuts, coconut, chillies and spices. |
| ▪ Eating Patterns |
| Food is usually served in bowls and placed on long tables surrounded by several chairs, where the whole family can sit together for a meal. A meat or fish dish is a must in every meal, but vegetables are also essential. The vegetables are usually cooked without any spices or masalas unlike the northern cuisine. There is no special style as such in eating food in Goa. All the dishes are eaten together as usual in plate. |
