In the Land of the foxes, there are new Stories
11 Dec 2016 04:47am IST
Report by
Sujay Gupta
Report by
Sujay Gupta
Anisha Hasan Mendes has come home. From college in Delhi,
some roots in Hyderabad, which have delightfully stuck in the cuisine she is so
fond of, she is indeed back to a space which is quintessentially a
by-product of her creative explosion. It’s a story all right. And she has
called this chapter- Saligao Stories.
Calling this just a restaurant would be taking a modern
keyboard and calling it a classical piano. It’s a grand Goan home (or
‘Portuguese house’ as all old homes are called by our Delhi mates, little
knowing that there was a Goa before the Portuguese arrived and people had homes
then which were grand and they have survived, but that’s another story). A
large living room, which is the heart of the restaurant, a little passage
between the living room and the court yard, which has the bar and then the
sprawling court yard with easy cane chairs designed for long conversations
under the shade of trees in this hidden Saligao nook. Every cranny of Saligao
stories has character, and there are stories on every wall. With hundreds of
beautiful plates which alternate with printing blocks, a piano in the corner of
the main dining space, its usual pride of place in Goan homes; and a little
altar formation above, making the prayer and music imagery oh so complete; and
then there are family portraits, so many black and white frames of family
folks, some ancient and in a better space now.
In this very busy medley of friends hanging out, with no one
really in an assigned table, some at the bar, some outside, the staff did a
miraculous job of reaching the food and drink to the right recipient.
Somewhere in the middle of this cacophony is the quiet, very quiet, ever
smiling chef Siddharth Hegde. Sid, a Juhu boy from Rizvi college has done his
bit and done well, in some of the better known cafes and restaurants in Bombay
like Woodside in Colaba, started by another friend Sushant Kamat, where a night
of drinking every beer in the world ends up with a mammoth breakfast, all in
the same café/bar. Hegde happened to meet me at Barrels and Bones in Mala,
which was formerly Baba café, which again was formerly Ernestos. In its
different avatars, we have all been welcomed there, but Sid made the urgently
needed difference to the food there since the iconic Chef Vasquito left the
place. He tinkered with a lot of conventional dishes and made them
unconventional; so much so that for yours truly if a steak does not have blue
cheese sauce and some crab on the side, it doesn’t quite feel like steak.
But here at Saligao stories, it’s a much larger art gallery
and a canvas that will allow him to do much, much more: Hyderabadi food for
instance. With an élan which is so nawabi,
two bowls of slow cooked goodness- haleem
arrived; made of mutton, lentils and wheat, all in a paste and piping hot.
Cashews, fried onions and lime are all pounded in, each playing their part in
the symphony. While the gulf countries claim this is to be theirs, the nawabs of Hyderabad do not let this
claim ever go far away from them. And since we are Anisha’s, our loyalties must
lie with Hyderabad. Though the Bohris, in India make very traditional haleem as well, but less spicy. A
personal wish though, is the addition of a boiled eggs and coriander on top for
a perfect haleem.
The Hyderabadi biryani had a ring of fragrance and
perfection that comes from cooking it slow and allowing the kache gosht to be buried in layers
of fragrant rice. This went down amidst long conversations with old friends and
new. Carlton Braganza, of fifteen year friendship vintage when his restaurant
in Bangalore, Opus transformed from a great space for music and food to an
entertainment institution, was in the house. Carlton doesn’t need to sing for
his supper, but sing he does, during very frequent visits to Goa, as he did at
Saligao stories that night.
Almost at every space, there were friends or long time
acquaintances, comfortable in a kind of space they are used to. And since this
is right inside the “fox country” of Saligao, you could almost imagine a
certain past next neighbour, who loved good food, company and conversations,
the late wily old fox and politician, Dr Willy D Souza, sauntering in from his
bungalow to Saligao Stories next door. This place is built for conversations.
As all Goan homes were.
Post script: Heads up:
The Christmas month is always the best time for the hunt for the best steaks of
the season. It’s work in progress
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