Joseph Zuzarte wrote:
The hills and vales of Goa have been, these days, aromatic with the heady
smell of the ripening cashew apples and the small country stills which were
busy distilling urrack and fenny from the neera of the cashew apples. In
fact, cashew fenny and the fenny stills in villages are practically a part
of our collective Goan racial memory. Talk about Goa and fenny always comes
into the picture.
Cecil:
a) Considering that the Portuguese introduced the cashew tree to Goa just a
few hundred years ago I don't think it can be really have been assimilated
so soon into our 'racial memory'. Carl Jung must be rolling in his grave to
hear such nonsense.
b) I do believe that one can have a talk about Goa without 'fenny' coming
into the picture.
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Joseph Zuzarte
Which is why all Goans -- and specially cashew fenny lovers --
should make a pilgrimage at least once in their lifetimes to the SVD
Seminary in Raia near Margao, to have a sip of the pure cashew fenny
distilled by Father Caetano there. If you go in on a summer
afternoon, you can also drink gallons of freshly squeezed out neera
or juice of cashew fruit, the only fruit with its seed outside its
body.
Cecil:
I am sure there are other fruits that have the seeds outside the body.
Miguel Braganza will surely educate us on that.
Technically though, what is referred to as the cashew 'apple' is not
actually the fruit but is a modification of a part of the flower that
breeds the fruit. The cashew seed itself is the 'fruit' and the inner
edible kernel is the actual 'seed'. But lets not go into the technical
details and just accept for the time being that the 'apple' is the cashew
'fruit' in layman's language.
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Joseph Zuzarte:
The SVD Seminary is a little-known secret among cashew fenny
lovers who are constantly despairing of the adulterated cashew fenny
sold in the bars and tavernas. Cashew fenny aficionados also swear
by Big Boss cashew fenny, probably the purest cashew fenny available
in a branded bottle.
Cecil:
True aficionados of cashew feni also feel that Big Boss bottles fenny
purchased from different distilleries, as its own Madame Rosa Distillery
cannot supply enough for market demands. True they buy from the better
distillers but the chances of one getting a dud cashew fenny from Big Boss
are quite high. I speak from long experience, and that of other caju fenny
experts. If one wants a pure branded caju fenny one is better off with the
Premium (Rs. 150/-) offering from Lobo's Farm which is a triple-distillate
from their own plantations and not sourced from other distillers.
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Joseph Zuzarte:
All cashew fenny makers agree that the real cashew fenny is not really a
social drink, like beer or your regular whisky; it's more like a cognac, to
be had either as an aperitif or as a post-dinner liqueur, or used
medicinally.
Cecil:
Joseph had better get his facts right before making such sweeping
ill-informed statement about the Nectar of Life.
Cheers!
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