business with pleasure
In over a decade of wandering around the Goan countryside, almost each burst of gallivanting turning into a column, the genre of food which has perhaps been missed out is the most obvious. The dal roti, butter chicken, kebab combo, which has made most of us grow from boys to men and supposedly civilised decent human beings has not, regrettably been given its pride of place, in this space where eating is worshipped with rare reverence. The perfectly good Punjabi or North Indian meal was an illusion in most of Goa at the turn of the millennium. The great Kapoors, Khannas, Singhs and Sharmas had not yet taken residence in the Saipem hills or their very own village Assagao, which now is an extension of Greater Kailash or Saket. The kebab and butter chicken craving which hits you at 1 am remained un-satiated. But crisis is always the harbinger of opportunity. A free spirit Rajesh you guessed it, Khanna, who moved from Delhi to Goa to be his own man settled in Colva and in those parts before moving up North. His little store Tropical, at the old Calangute petrol pump, was open
round the clock offering ice creams and eats for after party
revellers. He slowly expanded and bought the shops in and
around to start a sprawling food court, which was open
throughout. This is where Indian food from Kashmir to
Kerala got served. This is where friendships were formed
as food was digested. A hot meal of butter chicken, nan,
chicken chettinad with dosas led to perfect national
integration. Some true blue goan lads loved it.
Yours truly, in those days, when Lloyd, (of the House
of Lloyd’s fame) operated from his garage finished “work’
at 4 am and he and I would rush to the food court for
two plates each of butter chicken, dal and roti. That after
Lloyd spent the night serving pork chops, xacuti and
amsol to hungry locals and tourists who came to Lloyd’s to
taste his mother’s home cooked Goan food.
However between then and now, this staple hasn’t
really set hearts and stomachs on fire, thought the search
has been never ending, and we dare say, that some
surprises, at the unlikeliest of places, did spring up.
Away from the highway to the airport, the road cuts
in towards the coast and heads to Bogmalo beach and to
Jowetts. Now Jowetts is as Goan and as local a shack as
you can get, till us friends, for the sake of it ordered butter
chicken there. It was unbelievably good, resulting in two
or three trips from the North just to have butter chicken
at Jowetts. The quality dropped a bit and our trips became
infrequent. But one plans to give it a shot when the season
begins.
Across the state and countryside, there is a dhaba on
the Mapusa-Pernem road whose name this writer forgets
but whose fame he does not. In 2005- 6, there were weekly
excursions to this dhaba in a convoy of three cars post
midnight . The order was fixed – butter chicken, egg bhurji
paneer masala, tandoori chicken and massala chai. Now
for the uninitiated the X factor in butter chicken is never
butter but the dahi and the masala with a slight touch of
sugar which sinks into the tandoori cooked chicken. It is
Punjab’s local dish, India’s national dish, Goa’s “getting
used to” dish and England’s dish of new identity.
Years have passed but the hunt continues. Yours truly is
very pleased to report that very recently, another unlikely
place offering Indian food has a combination on its menu
straight from the palaces of Lucknow. Eating this is a fine
art and hence it’s crucial that your taste buds combine
with your olfactory senses to do justice do this divine
offering. So here goes. Teh combination is kakori kebab
and dal makhni. The kakori kebabs are very fine morsels
of mutton mince rolled into longish shapes. As soon as
you bite it, it melts. Not surprising since it was created for
one for one of the ancient Lucknawi nawabs who lost his
teeth but not his appetite for kebabs. No one interferes
with nawabs and their kebabs and since kakori kebabs
turned out to be the finest, kings and commoners have had
them for hundreds of years. They have indeed reached the
shores of Goa and are served at Bay 15 in Oxdel, but to
have them, you must know how to have them. So here’s a
tutorial. Order a plate of kakoris, kali dal makhni (black
butter daal) and laccha paratha (which are broken fluffy
parathas). Break a piece of paratha, use it to scoop the
kakori and then dip the combination into the dal and then
have it all. Little wonder that India succumbed to the rule
of the nawabs.
India has finally reached Goa and no one’s complaining.
