The come back home
and spend most of the year in Goa, barring a few months away in the land to
which they once belonged. And when they come back to Goa, they meet the green
green grass of ‘home’, the chatter of their real friends they have made, and
come back to the culinary islands of excellence they have created in Goa.
Happier in the environs of Baga,
Arpora, Anjuna and Assagao, than in France, Italy Germany, Greece, they’ve
brought tastes of where they once belonged to here. These foreigner- Goans have
served and received flavours beyond their plates. Flavours of friendship, binding,
recognition and assimilation, both within Goans here, as well as, and perhaps
more, among the expats and non-goan Indian settlers.
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And there are many. Far more than the
trio you will read about today, who are the essence of assimilation and
signposts of what Goa always was, a land which beckoned ambassadors from
different shores, from the time the Portuguese brought spices, cafreal and
chillies to Goa 500 years ago to Elizabeth Yogini, in Villa Blanche Assagao,
bringing cakes that melt in your mouth like in a Vienna coffee house.
One of the most calming experiences,
almost as if nature had devised its own chill pill and encapsulated it in a
territory between Baga and Anjuna, is by the fields outside Baba Au Ruhm. This
is firmly on the map of go to cafés and restaurants and really needs little
introduction to hippies and hipsters. It has also over time given serious
breakfast goals to hotels, both boutique and five stars in North Goa, as they
find their guests, spending their mornings looking into the fields, and the
coconut palms and sipping their fresh juices and ham and cheese crostinis at
Baba Au Ruhm
Aurodayinieve Ferraud known to most of
us as Dayini, is French and lived for long in the Auroville community in Tamil
Nadu. She and techno musician Leo Cecil Michaud, born in France, grew up in
Germany and living in India since 2002, after coming here as an 18 year old in
1992, created this magical place called Baba Au Ruhm where serenity meets
culinary satiation in every morsel. The sound of the leaves mingle with the
strains of the sitar player and the genteel conversations after the sun rises
or when it is close to setting. Feast on the Irani omelette, the roast beef
cigars, the hachi parmentier- layered mashed potato with veg or mince beef
topped with cheese n and baked in a wood oven, or just the full English
breakfast with the works, home made ham, sausages, eggs to order, washed down
with the best organic coffee in these parts and while you wait order almond or
chocolate croissants.
Less than five minutes from Baba Au
Ruhm (named after a French dessert, a cake soaked in syrup made with rum and
filled with whipped cream) is Creme Choc in Anjuna, in the heart of the square,
Davide Passarella, from Italy, (where else) is well loved in Goa’s social circles
and is one of our own now. And it surely helps that his gelatos are as good, if
not better than what you get back “home’ in Italy.
The salted butter caramel gelato, dark
chocolate sorbet and the affogato are the best you can get anywhere in the world,
including in Italy. But these are just three picks of the 30 plus. It’s on the
lady of Health chapel square next to Orchard stories, (and can really be
anywhere in France or Italy). The setting is perfect, quaint, white washed and
on the kerb where you can sit and watch Anjuna go by.
And further up ( or down) depending
from which direction you are approaching this, head to Villa Blanche, where you
will almost always, (except Wednesday’s) from October to May, meet Elizabeth
Yogini Regular readers of Business with Pleasure had met her in these columns
in October 2017,but she not only deserves a repeat, but fits into the galaxy of
those foreigners, who have made this their home and travel to their countries
of origin, to either pick supplies or get their travel papers refreshed and
renewed, She grew up in a German village bordering France and Luxemburg and
then spent some time mesmerized by Osho Rajneesh.
Villa Blanche can be anywhere, in a
piazza in Rome, in the black forest in Germany, on top of the Swiss Alps or in
trendy Manhattan, but it is just as well, that it is in a leafy, languid lane
of Assagao. Have a Cappuccino and cream, or a pretzel with smoked black forest
ham or a salad with feta, or just fresh local fish.
One of the engravings on her restaurant
wall reads:
“Just sit there right now, Don’t do a
thing, just rest”
For each of them, the calm of the country side and the sands on
the shore, meet the flame of their passion to serve, not just their absolute
delights, but a tapestry of togetherness which makes Goa what it always was, is
and will be- a place to come home to.
