The Goan Kitchen

Review and recommendations

The bright yellow interiors of The Goan Kitchen in Loutolim house one of India’s most worthy efforts to save regional heritage. While other kitchens in Goa race to be contemporary, The Goan Kitchen is clear on its mission to preserve and revive the traditional Catholic foods of Goa. Eschewing modern techniques and systems, the kitchen here as a large team of local women doing it all old school. Every Goan knows the difference between masala that has been stone-ground versus made in blender; the difference between curries cooked in kundlem (traditional clay pots) and modern cookware; the difference between bebinca made in a tizal (traditional earthen oven) and one made in a modern oven. The owners of The Goan Kitchen, Oliver Fernandes and Crescy Baptista have resolved to deliver Goan food as it has always been made, to use traditional methods and know-how and to prevent the erasure of important recipes from collective memory.

Operating in multiple formats, one can either shop at their store in Margao, order plated meals at their café or pre-order an interactive immersive meal where guests are taken through the stories behind 16-20 dishes unavailable in restaurants. They also do collaborations and pop-ups at various events. The perception of Goan Catholic food has suffered as it proliferates tourist imaginations in a highly reduced version of cafreal, vindaloo, xacuti, and chilli fry. Here, customers can buy packaged products – pickles, marinades, sweets, and various types of doce (Goan fudge). At the café, they offer a selection of starters, mains and desserts that changes daily. They don’t have an ala carte menu and serve a meal instead. You could find cashew apple sorpotel one day or karela stuffed with prawns on another.

Those nostalgic for what their Goan grandmas used to make at feasts, festivals and Christmas are likely to find it all here. A glimpse of the dizzying array of foods available goes like this – aatol (a sweet made of rice, chana dal, coconut, jaggery, cardamom and turmeric leaves), tandlam godh bhakri (a sweet bread made of rice), beef pasteis, bacon and cheese rissois, perad (the infamous guava cheese found in all ex-Portuguese colonies), rose cookies, dodol (coconut milk jaggery pudding), tender coconut pudding, dry fruit custard, milk toffees , orchata (an almond rosewater drink), banana fritters and rose cookies.