Food and local cuisine in South Goa
Goan food is one of India's most distinctive regional cuisines, and South Goa is a fine place to eat it at its most straightforward and satisfying. The foundation is the coast: the day's fish and seafood — mackerel, kingfish, pomfret, prawns, crab, mussels, clams and squid — cooked with the local trinity of coconut, tamarind or kokum, and red chillies, sharpened in many dishes with vinegar, a Portuguese inheritance. The everyday soul-food is fish curry rice (xitt kodi): a tangy coconut-and-chilli curry over parboiled red rice, the meal Goans themselves eat most, and the thing to order in the market eateries and beach shacks. A prawn curry or a plate of fried, semolina-crusted fish alongside it is close to a perfect Goan lunch.
The Portuguese centuries left a deep mark, and Goa's Catholic kitchen has dishes found nowhere else in India. Vindaloo — properly a pork dish marinated in vinegar, garlic and chilli (from the Portuguese carne de vinha d'alhos), fiery and sour, not the generic hot curry the name became abroad — is the emblem. Sorpotel, a rich, spicy stew of pork and offal cooked with vinegar and matured over days, is the celebratory festive dish, traditionally eaten with sannas, soft, slightly sweet steamed rice cakes leavened in the old way with toddy (a little like a fluffy idli). Xacuti (pronounced sha-KOO-tee) is a dark, complex curry of chicken or mutton built on roasted coconut and a long list of ground spices; cafreal, a green, herb-and-chilli marinated chicken, and chorizo, the tangy Goan sausage, round out the Catholic-Goan repertoire, along with balchão (a hot, tangy pickle-like preparation of prawns or fish) and recheado fish stuffed with red masala.
Vegetarians and Hindu-Goan cooking are well served too — the Saraswat tradition gives dishes like tonak and mushroom xacuti, coconut-based vegetable curries, and simple bhaji-pao. Speaking of which, Goa's bread is a small marvel in itself: the crusty poi, the pão and the undo, delivered fresh by the village poder on his bicycle, are a legacy of Portuguese bakers and a staple of every meal.
Leave room for the sweets. Bebinca, a dense, many-layered pudding of coconut milk, egg yolk, sugar and ghee baked one patient layer at a time, is Goa's signature dessert and a classic edible souvenir; dodol (a dark, chewy jaggery-and-coconut sweet) and coconut-rich Christmas treats round out the table.
And then there is feni, Goa's heritage spirit and a protected regional product: a strong, pungent liquor distilled either from cashew apples (in the season around March–May) or from coconut-palm toddy. It is very much an acquired taste, best tried locally — often with a squeeze of lime and a soft drink — and it is as Goan as the beaches. As with street food anywhere, favour busy, high-turnover places, drink sealed or filtered water, and ease into the seafood rather than over-ordering on day one. Note too that Goa's beaches can vary day to day on what is fresh, so ask what the catch is rather than what is simply on the menu.
Culture, festivals and etiquette
South Goa's culture is a genuine blend, shaped by centuries of Portuguese rule layered over an older Konkani and Hindu society. The everyday language is Konkani, the state's official language, with Marathi, Hindi and English all widely understood; English in particular is easy to get by in around the tourist areas. What gives the south its distinctive texture is the strong presence of Catholic Goa — village churches, wayside crosses, feast-day processions and the whitewashed mansions of the old gentry — sitting comfortably alongside Hindu temples and traditions, often in the same village and sometimes in the same family's celebrations.
The festival calendar is one of the pleasures of timing a visit well. The most famous event is the Goa Carnival (usually in February, just before Lent), a Portuguese-derived street festival of parades, floats, music and colour, with King Momo presiding — livelier in Panaji and the north but felt across the state. Christmas and the New Year are celebrated with real warmth and turn the whole coast festive. The pre-monsoon São João (Feast of St John the Baptist, 24 June) is a joyous, waterlogged monsoon festival in which young men leap into wells and streams; Sangodd and other monsoon feasts follow. The Feast of the Three Kings (Epiphany, 6 January) is celebrated with special pageantry at a handful of villages, Chandor among them, where boys enact the arrival of the Magi. Hindu festivals — Ganesh Chaturthi (Chovoth), Diwali, Shigmo (the Goan spring festival, akin to Holi, with folk dances and parades) — are woven through the year as well. The great decennial event, the Exposition of the relics of St Francis Xavier at Old Goa, draws pilgrims from around the world when it is held.
A few points of etiquette make for a smoother, more respectful trip:
- Dress for the setting. Beachwear is fine on the sand, but cover up in towns, markets, churches and temples — Goa is relaxed, but skimpy clothing away from the beach reads as disrespectful. In churches, covered shoulders and knees are appropriate; remove shoes before entering temples.
- Ask before photographing people, especially at religious services, processions, in villages and at the private heritage mansions, where photography rules vary and are sometimes restricted.
- Respect the sea and the wildlife. Obey beach flags and lifeguards, don't swim where prohibited (particularly during and just after the monsoon), and keep well away from cordoned turtle-nesting sites at beaches like Agonda and Galgibaga.
- Nudity and public drinking/drug use are illegal; drinking alcohol on the open beach outside licensed shacks is not permitted, and drug possession carries serious penalties despite the party reputation of parts of the state.
- Be a considerate guest at private homes. The Chandor mansions and similar heritage houses are lived-in family properties opened out of goodwill — a courteous manner and the customary donation are expected.
Above all, South Goa runs on susegad, the untranslatable Goan idea of an easy, contented, unhurried life. Meeting it halfway — slowing down, being patient, taking the long lunch — is really the whole point of coming here.