Title: Stray Thoughts of a Toronto Goan - Goan Cooking Is Falling From Grace By: Roland Francis Source: Goan Voice UK Daily Newsletter 2 Dec 2012 at www.goanvoice.org.uk
Full text: I wonder if anyone else has noticed the worldwide decline in Goan cooking standards. In the best case this could be attributable to the 'chalta-hai' (it will do) mentality that has permeated the methods and ingredients used in such cooking. In the worst case this is another leading indicator of the increasing loss of Goan identity that is becoming manifest not only in Goa but also in the Diaspora. Take the once real McCoy. Ingredients were fresh albeit unconcerned with good health. Those were times when there were few buses and even fewer cars and all that walking around villages and to nearby towns made exercise a natural activity and high cholesterol an absent entity. Of course many of today's known illnesses were not discovered then, but had they been, no danger would be posed by that food irrespective of age and genetics. Then there was the cooking process. The mixing had to be done just so and the stirring involved made muscles ache. Some dishes had to be kept for a certain number of days before eating - like sorpotel and miscut - while being stored in strictly specified conditions. It was all worth it. In the end, the taste was superb however simple the meal and you knew that freshness was a given. >From the most humble grandmother or aunt in residence to the most sophisticated Goan chief cook in Bombay's or Karachi's leading international hotels, a common dedication to the art, was the hallmark. No written recipes were followed or recorded and all that expertise came from experience and a liberal dose of talent, virtues much under-rated in today's cooking circles which give undue credit to which institution you have worked in and under which chef you have learned your trade. What you taste today no matter where you go, is faux-Goan cooking. Time has been sacrificed on the altar of expedience, freshness on the table of heavy spicing and authenticity on the alibi of inferior substitution. The result is mediocrity that would turn the souls of past mestres into banshee screaming ghouls of paradise. Take a Goan wedding. Anyone who has not witnessed a wedding celebration in Goa in the day, is missing one of his or hers better life experiences. Usually, the quality of the table was in inverse proportion to the status of the bride and groom. No amount of liquor imbibed (and there was never any shortage of it) dulled the taste of the dishes, so one can only imagine what one's tongue would have experienced if unsullied by alcohol. The cooking had to be started and completed on the morning of the same day and the catch and crop had to be harvested and brought to the kitchen not before the previous night. The spices had to be delicately administered and sprinkled not only to emphasize the freshness and therefore the taste but also not to hide it. The gravies, the viands and desserts all complemented each other like some mafia nexus of made men, capos, law officers and judges all conspiring to complete some hugely profitable task, in this case complete satisfaction of every hungry guest starving after the long religious rituals followed by generous doses of the spirits that cheer. The only other occasion that challenged the old Goan wedding was the Parsi celebration with its Sali Boti, Lagan nu Acchar, Patra ni Macchi (one huge stuffed green masala pomfret for each guest) and other favorites, not forgetting the human comedy involved that rivaled the Goan in uniqueness. Nobody has the time today to cook like they once did. The average household in Goa minus the old folk buys plastic packed ingredients available in local groceries which they call supermarkets and turn it in pseudo home cooked Goan food via microwaves and gas burners. In restaurants rural north Indians cook purportedly Goan food in the butter- chicken and tandoori-masala style. Everyone seems to have gotten used to it. Expectations have been lowered and high costs have gone even higher thanks to bad money chasing even worse tastes. In the Diaspora too, what passes for Goan cooking has to be eaten to be believed. To those who know better, that is. Pork sausages have undergone a sanitization, becoming either milder than their Portuguese and Italian equivalents or spicier than their West Indian cousins. Fish curries taste like something out of an Eritrean menu and sorpotel and vindalho are rarely seen, in the mistaken belief that they and they alone would cause heart attacks and strokes. When they are present, you wish they would not have been. Such is these dishes complete loss of Goan flavor. So wherever you are and whatever you do, if you have the occasion to come across some kindly Goan soul that offers you a meal for cost or for free, no matter how humble or how elaborate or anything in-between and the dish you happen to eat reminds you of something your mother magically cooked, bow your head in humility and thanks. The chances of such a thing happening, going forward, are lesser than you think. Comments to roland.fran...@gmail.com