In addition to checking out Old Goa we visited a spice farm near Ponda.
I'm sure it was a complete tourist diorama but we had fun, learned a bit, and ate GREAT food. (And felt really torn between the awfulness of the elephants being held captive in a parking lot and the awfulness of taking your kids to an elephant and not letting them ride it. Mom-guilt won, sorry elephant.)
Above you can see the traditional set up for making feni. No, I didn't try any. I did give a bottle to UD though, since I'm such a good sister. Haven't heard from him since he got back to Seattle...
And below two more favorite Panjim spots - the Gujarat Sweet Mart (huge, clean, packed with out-of-this world delish Indian sweets, and right across the street from our hotel) first and then the new municipal market - a very orderly supermarket-esque indoor veggie market and filled with gnarly old aunties selling jugs of homemade feni along with their produce...
Even our Panjim hotel was worth the trip - how many places can you pretend to be a Portuguese sailor while swimming or wear a napkin hat during dinner? (We had originally planned to stay somewhere else, but in what turned out to be his parting gift to us, Rinoo Baba steered us to Fidalgo instead. It was the perfect place for us, of course.)
And lastly, though not photographed, I would be remiss if I failed to mention the restaurant Horseshoe in Panjim's Latin Quarter. Sitting on Ourem Creek, this gem serves up authentic Portuguese Goan cuisine in surroundings that are far more European than Indian. Prawn curry was out of sight as was the bebinca, a dessert made from coconut milk and egg yolks. (Mix, do it up!) Best, the chef/owner and staff were kind enough to make Ben a meal all his own, not off the menu, when it became clear that my vegetarian spice-averse four year old was not going to make friends with the dreamy Goan meat curries...
Making plans to go back. For much, much longer. And with my husband.
(and without my kids!)
3 comments:
i'm assuming this dessert is something like a slow-cooked custard? flan-y? creme brulee-y? in which case, i am already on top of it.
ope, just read the recipe. more cake-y, it seems. i am already on my way to the local international mart to get it done.
It really is custard-y, not cake-y. SUPER moist and rich and dense. Shouldn't be like cake at all. Can't wait to hear how it turns out!
And if you're hitting the int'l mall in g'boro give my love to the Dominicans with the tamale wrappers.
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