In the pecking order of food creators who can claim their place in the cosmos of divinity by doing the greatest service to human kind, are those who make breakfast. While the humble toast butter jam and coffee maker will get his corner in that universe, the ones who wear the crown are the creators of the best that England has ever made, exported and established- the English breakfast. While country inns and B and B’s across England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland are still the best mini laboratories of the one of the best offerings made by humans, some places in Goa too do a full English or at least partly English. But with most things in the world, assimilation has taken place here too. But if the basics are in place, which essentially means a strip of bacon or two or three, sausages, fried tomatoes and fried bread, then the black pudding may be given a miss. And while yours truly loves the regular pit stops at café Bhonsle for the bhaji puri there is a connoisseur within whose search for the perfect English never dies, a old habit from days in the ole blighty. The full English is well full. Bacon, fully crisp, eggsscrambled and fried, sausages- at least two, tomato, grilled mushrooms, tea toast and marmalade.
The adventurous however take it further. Riding on the finest of diplomatic relations between the UK and the US, Eggs Benedict finds itself on the same table
as a part of the same order with full English at places. While genuine Brown Sahibs, Indians who are more English than the English might at times scoff at this
combination, look no further than the Regency Café and the Breakfast Club in London where you can’t be more English, and yet that American-Eggs Benedict has
arrived in these holiest of English breakfast altars. And yet there is a bit of England here too. No genuine eggs
benedict, a popular American breakfast, is complete
without buttered English muffins. It also has bacon or
ham (the latter the better), poached eggs with a liberal
dose of hollandaise sauce. And the Benedict meets the
full English with sautéed spinach, tomato, bacon and
one of my favorites- avocado (and no it’s not meat).
In Goa, the best of all this can be found in small
doses or in plenty where they do breakfast of the
western world and between most of them you can
be fully English, American or just crazy- a steak
with fried eggs. Villa Blanche near Anjuna does
freshly prepared quiche, pasta dishes, German meat
balls. “One degree” in Siolim (some years ago)
and Lila Café at Baga are old favorites. In Panjim,
Venite which was always a lunch and dinner place,
I’m told, does breakfast and so does the newly
opened charmer O Foggo in Fontainhas, and the
delightful French Pattisserie Delicieux near the
Caculo island.
And if you are looking for Eggs Benedict, the only
one who has come close to perfecting it is Emily of
Casa de Goa Calangute.
In a few weeks the shacks will be open and other
smaller restaurants where many of these delights
will be on offer. All it takes is a hungry stomach and
the love for life and all things English, American and
French.
