Dear fellow goanet readers
In the summer, seeing photographs of our NRI officials arriving for the Global
Goan Convention and Goan Festival in
London, United Kingdom with huge trunks on trolleys took me back to the days
when I was a child and travelled with my
family from Mombasa, Kenya to Goa for our once every four years trip back to
our
homeland.
In those days we travelled by ship so we were not restricted to the baggage
allowance of approximately 20 to 40 kgs today
when travelling by plane. So we were able to take a crate of goodies with us.
The first item on our shopping list was
cotton material. I clearly remember accompanying my mother round all the
material shops in Mombasa town choosing
pieces of cotton cloth for her close family members and also for us. The idea
was that when we got to Goa, we would
employ a tailor for a day, two days, even a week at our home, and have all our
clothes sown at the same time. The
second item was maggie cubes (usually chicken but sometimes beef), these were
very small cubes in a tin to be used in
pulao and chicken soup. My mother calculated how many tins she would take home
as they had to last between our four
yearly visits. The maggie cube tins were recycled in Goa, the insides lined
with grease proof paper for the storage of
Christmas sweets. I know this for a fact as once I accidentally opened a tin
and found a kulkul at the bottom. The third
item was kraft cheese in a blue round tin which had to be opened with a can
opener. This was one of the most prized
items taken to Goa. A tin would only be opened if a very important guest was
visiting like someone bringing a marriage
proposal, an older relative, etc. A very thin slice of kraft cheese was served
on a dainty cheese biscuit and garnished with
a little red dot (I can't remember whether this was beetroot or a tomato). If
you are reading this article and are over the
age of 50 and can't remember ever eating these words fail me. My memory was of
eating more kraft cheese in Goa on
our short holidays than in my whole lifetime. The fourth item was cloves. We
had a lot of these as on
a holiday to Zanzibar, cloves were literally given away to us as they were in
such plentiful supply.
On the way back from Goa to Mombasa we carried back goa sausages (made at home
from the house pig), masala ground
in vinegar in a big glass jar, cashew nuts with their skins left on, grams, goa
chillies, goan vinegar, Moira bananas and a
few custard apples.
In 1972 when we relocated to London, everything changed. I mean the contents of
our suitcases changed. In came the
air plane restrictions of so many kgs. I cannot recall my mother ever
mentioning maggie cubes, kraft cheese, cotton
material or cloves again.
In the 1970s and 1980s, our people living in Goa learnt a new word, Marks and
Spencer. A shirt sporting a Marks and
Spencer label was the equivalent of giving a man a gold bar. For sure he would
be wearing it the very next day and
paying you a visit to show his appreciation. A blouse or dress for the ladies
came a close
second. Chocolates at that time came a mere third. Woolworths did a pic and mix
selection of Cadbury chocolates. I
remember spending evening after evening sorting these out into little plastic
bags for my father to take on his trip to Goa.
Each bag had to have the same number of chocolates in the same coloured
wrapper. There were bags for the residents
of the old aged home in Saligao (our village), there were bags for members of
the hotel staff where he stayed and there
were even spare bags, just in case. He told us one of these spare bags came in
handy one day. A member
of the hotel staff knocked on his door and demanded another bag as he was now
married. He evidently wasn't going to
share his pic and mix bag with his wife!
On the way back from Goa to London we still carried back goa sausages (this
time bought from Mapusa or Panjim), masala
ground in vinegar in a big glass jar, cashew nuts with their skins left on in
plastic packets, grams still in newspaper, goa
chillies, goan vinegar and in addition konkani music tapes.
As the years went by, gifts of clothing from Marks and Spencer were substituted
with their iced fruit cakes and biscuits.
Cadbury chocolates was now in first place followed closely by Batchelors Cup a
Soup, the chicken and vegetable variety
(with their boxes taken out to reduce weight and space in the suitcase).
.
On the way back from Goa to London in addition to everything mentioned above,
our suitcases also contained Konkani
DVDs and CDs, packets of ready made pickles, spices for fish, chicken, meat and
vegetable favourites as well as designer
clothes and handbags.
Today, the biggest import to Goa is still chocolates and the biggest export
from Goa? Well, let's see if all of you all can
guess. Like chocolates, it starts with "C" and brings a smile to the face of
whoever is at the receiving end?
Rose Fernandes
Thornton Heath, Surrey, United Kingdom
27 November 2011
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