Intro to Goa

After that sleepless night from the coffee I recovered sufficiently to join the others for breakfast and then to the airport for the short flight to Goa. 

Nothing to report there, a nice airport both ends and a stress free sane flight. 

Arriving in Goa we are collected by our driver who takes us to the Tropical Spice Plantation where we had a delicious lunch and tried some new flavours. Our introduction to fani packed a punch. It is a 40% proof drink made from the cashew flower. Wow!  

We then went on a short tour of the demonstration area of the plantation and learned about all sorts of spices. Really informative and interesting. 

We got to our hotel just on sunset. The others were ready to get out and about. I was thankful for time out and retired to my room, showered and chilled on my bed. 

The intensity of this tour has taken it out of me. I feel I have spent 10 days on full speed driving from place to place and hearing facts and figures about everything. 

So see you in a couple of days. Time to chill. 

That was quick. Same day and I am back again but just to tell you a funny. 

My room has a QR code so guests can order contactless room service. So I hop on line and put in my order and wait and wait and wait. Eventually I give up and ring the kitchen. Oh QR code not working on phone. What you would like?  So I told them. Oh we dont have that?  

I ask what do they have (the menu was very extensive) and again I am asked what I want. I figure hard to say what I want when they dont know what they’ve got. 

Anyway I give up on room service and go to the restaurant where same guy asks the same questions. We weren’t getting anywhere so he calls the chef (who speaks less English than they other guy but at least knows what they have.) 

The long and short of it is that out of about 60 items they have only chicken curry or chicken tikka masala curry.  I settle on the tikka masala, the last thing I felt like. But it turned out to be exceptionally good. It might have been because I had worked up a good appetite by then. 

Night.  

OK I did say that I was having a rest day. Maybe tomorrow because right now I have to write about my first morning in Goa, the greenest, lushest place we have seen so far. 

We are staying in Candolim which looks to be one of the most touristy places along the coast, bars, restaurant, tourists a plenty. Corny but bustly and cute. 

We drive through a number of less touristy villages and collect our chef for the day. He takes us to the tiny fish market. Today is Thursday and many locals dont eat fish on Thursdays and the fishermen don’t often go out on Thursday mornings so he had ventured out early and got us some fresh lemon fish before it was all picked over. The market was only tiny with a few vendors selling a few fish and occasionally prawns of kalamari. 

We picked out some prawns and made our way back to Mr Felix’ house where he and his wife demonstrated some Goan cooking to us. Everything was beautifully set up and we all had a chance to help with the veg while Mr Felix’s wife did the cooking. A small recipe book was our point of reference and for each meal the spices were neatly laid out for us. 

The staple food in Goa is fish and the main ingredients are coconut, kashmiri and goan chillis and vinegar. The cuisine incorporates the best of east and west and is far different from the food further north. 

The meals they prepared were a Vegetable Pulau, Goan Prawn Curry, vegetables Xacuti and Fish Recheado. 

We watched the curry pastes being made and could already pick up on the smell of the individual components. One paste ( Recheado) was very similar to something I’d had in turkey and really got my salivary glands going. It was thick and red and sweet and spicy and it was spread thickly over fish before it was fried. 

The other curry paste, largely based on coconut was fragrant and mild very much like SE Asian tastes and was cooked with veg. 

We peeled and deveined the prawns which were added to a lightly spiced creamy sauce for the prawn curry. 

Every dish was divine but that Fish Recheado sent me into a spin. The fish was overcooked and dry but that sauce - heaven sent. The flavours were so complex with each hitting the palette at a different time and each causing a different explosion. 

And then… and then came fried aubergine with the same sauce which again hit all the right buttons but here with the caramelisation of the aubergine as well. I am in heaven for the first time in days. This is beyond good and I want more. 

This food is very different to anything we have had before, lighter  but I think more complex in cooking method and in flavour. I loved how each mouthful pinged on a different part of the palate and left different and lasting after tastes. 

We got back to the hotel for a free afternoon which I used for a wander through town and a welcome trip into a supermarket deli. Im moving on so couldnt buy much but I did indulge in a packet of biscoff biscuits which I did open when I got back to the hotel. 

I had a quick swim in the roof top pool, super refreshing but a rather stark view so no reason to hang around after. 

This was the last full day of the tour and our famous guide took us to dinner at a Western/Indo place called Inferno. 

I spied the mixed grill with MEAT on the menu and was ready to order when Baggy tells us he has already ordered. Im here for a few days so can have my mixed grill another time. 

The food Baggy ordered was all delicious; fried squid, a chicken masala curry, fish curry and rice with a few breads added it. Eventually I have figured out how to tear   the bread with my right hand only, the left neatly tucked under the table and have mastered the art of scooping the food into my mouth. It does taste better that way. 

Our meals were delicious and then came the deserts. 

Flambed bananas for me. 

Gulab Jamul with ice cream were shared and were every bit as hood as thr first time we have them. 

And the piece de resistance was Chocolate brownie for Camila. Of course you know who finished that one off. 

A lovely end to the tour. Although it was all too much for me I was lucky enough to be travelling with a great bunch of fun caring people. I will miss the laughs but look forward to a few days of chilling in Goa.