In October 2014, The Bangalore Black Tie, a dining club, went on its annual culinary trip away . . . to Goa. One of the highlights of our trip was lunch at the Figueredo Mansion.
Here's an excerpt of the report I wrote after that lunch: *" . . . we headed to the Palacio de Figuereido - a 500 year old home built at a time and in the style that aristocrats lived. Someone called it a version of the Palais de Versailles. And it's been lived in by the same family for over 400 years. * *Dona Maria Lourdes de Albuquerque de Figueiredo, an indomitable lady of 85, rules the roost at this magnificent home. She was Portuguese India's representative in the Parliament of Portugal for 30 years, invited to the role by the Dictator Salazar himself, enthralled, it is said, by this petite diminutive lady who dared to disagree with him on every statement he made in connection with Goa. "Wear a sari on the first day" he told her. And she did.* *Dona Maria Lourdes took us through her rambling home, explaining the provenance of every artifact - and there were scores - and finally led us to a single dining table that sat all 26 of us. With venerable old crockery and cutlery and yet another example of fine Luso-Goan food. * Here are some photographs from that lunch. And now here's the story of the Goan House older than the Taj Mahal. <https://www.cntraveller.in/story/goan-house-older-taj-mahal-just-opened-doors/> -- *Stanley Pinto* The Embassy,
