This time I would like to mention an interesting find in
Goa, a place which managed to not just blow me away with the quality of food
but also with its atmosphere.
I came to know about it from a colleague who had visited the
place and I made sure to have lunch there the last time I was in Goa, in
October of 2012. We were 6 of us, 3 grass-eaters (also called vegetarians) and
3 meat-eaters(also called smart people) and both groups were unanimous in their
opinion that the food was awesome. There was some debate over whether the
greens or the reds were better but since only the smart people could eat both
variety, we steam-rolled the opposition.
The next time I visited was in June this year when my wife
and I went with another couple to Goa. Yeah, it was raining. I actually made
everyone travel more than 80kms to-fro with the promise that it would be worth
it. Thank my lucky stars that it was, for all of us. This visit is the
inspiration for the post.
For me, eating at a restaurant is a near-miss activity
mostly. Some places look good but the food rivals Amrita Rao at being plain, at
others they just put together some tables and call it a restaurant but the
kitchen dishes out some beauties that could rival Zeenat Aman in her heydays. I
prefer the latter but both times there is a sense of incompleteness to the
meal. It’s like a Hindi movie where the songs were good but the story sucked or
vice-versa. It isn’t Paisa vasool.
And then there comes a movie like Rockstar (those who have a problem with RKs strumming
in the movie can Kiss my donkey) which reaffirms your faith, reignites your
hope and energises you to watch more movies. This is my Rockstar of
restaurants.
So which was this place? What was so great about this
restaurant in Goa, where at least a hundred if not thousand
shacks/restaurants/hotels serve “authentic” goan/coastal cuisine? What was the so-called
“atmosphere” like?
To start with, The name of the restaurant is Chef Fernando’s
Nostalgia (http://fernandosnostalgia.wordpress.com/)
. It’s located in Raia, close to the home of Mario Miranda, another genius from
Goa.
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| Fernando's |
The menu is predominantly Goan with quite a lavish spread.
They include the Xacuti, Goan curry, Vindaloo. For the “smart people” (refer
first paragraph) there are too many options ranging from Prawns to Beef to Oyster
to Pomfret to King fish and of course Chicken(for the pseudo “smart people”).
There are some exotic dishes made from Ox Tail, Cow tongue which I was
forbidden from sampling both times by my fellow food munchers. For the
grass-eaters, the options are good enough too.
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| Yummy!! |
What blew me away was that each dish that we ordered was
lip-smacking (both times). Solid portions AND BIG ON FLAVOUR. It’s just the place to be
for a smart (refer first paragraph) foodie. I won’t go into too much detail of
each dish since I loved everything that I had and adding the details would
treble the size of this post, at least. Moreover that is boring and I’d rather
some critic type did it so that I can avoid reading it.
Oh yeah, for anyone who likes their cocktails, this is the
place to be too. Once you have it here, there will always be something missing
in it whenever you have it elsewhere.
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| Before & After you had a few drinks :-) |
My recommendation: Long island iced tea – It comes in a 500
ml glass and is quite refreshing on a hot day. But it’s made in such a manner
that each of the white spirit that is added makes its presence felt quite clearly,
both to your tongue and your brain. Isn’t that how a cocktail should be!
(Warning: stick to one or maybe two. Any more and you are
inviting trouble as I discovered in the back seat of my car).
To add to this is the atmosphere; The restaurant itself is
an extension to the house and is fringed by a nice garden with trees all around
giving you a very natural setting.
The huge bar has grillions of ginormous spirit bottles
and frillions of normal sized spirit
bottles (check pic above).
There is a mural by Mario Miranda which takes up a whole wall, small
knick-knacks, terracotta figures, old world table-chairs; all of which add to
the charm. It seems like a perfect
setting to have a long lunch with your buddies
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| Knicks and knacks |
I came away quite impressed with the restaurant the first
time I visited it but the second one confirmed my first impression about the
restaurant which was that the food and drinks were quite impressive.
Just writing this post has made me nostalgic…
