The typical vegetarian Goan food is in great demand during the auspicious month of Shravan and grabbing the opportunity to attract footfalls, many restaurants, caterers and take-away centres not only in Goa but even outside Goa are offering Shravan Special authentic local cuisine with traditional tastes and flavours...
Goans like to enjoy festivals with extended family members who travel to Goa and spend time together in ancestral homes, enjoying typical traditional delicacies prepared with love by mothers and grandmothers. However, changing lifestyle restricts the time spent in the kitchens over cooking large meals. As during Shravan most of the Goans prefer a pure vegetarian diet, the restaurants, chefs and caterers have been offering Shravan meals for the past few years. The trend is picking up fast with new and out-of-the-box concepts being introduced in the market every season.
One such innovative concept was initiated this year at the beginning of Shravan by Kurdikar Caterers that are known to serve ‘Food by Kilo’. Having initiated ‘take-away’ catering services during the covid pandemic, Narayan Kurdikar adopted an innovative concept of serving a thali that is sufficient for five persons in the family. Claiming that their homelike taste brings people together during house parties, family functions, office lunch, get-togethers or picnics, now it is bringing five persons together to enjoy a sumptuous Shravan thali in homes and offices.
Kurdikar, who accepts bulk orders in veg and non-veg food items, has made changes to the regular menu and added Shravan special items beginning from this year. During Shravan most families prefer pure vegetarian food, but many don’t have time or resources to cook it at home. “So we started our Shravan package this year from July 24 and the response has been really good. Around 25 families and some offices have been pre-ordering our Shravan food and people have been positive to our taste,” asserts Kurdikar who charges Rs 1500 for a package of Shravan delicacies that suffices for five people with changing menu on a daily basis.
“At several offices, five persons decide to order our Shravan thali and when the food arrives they sit together and enjoy our homely tasting delicacies. My mother Sudha Kurdikar trained my team to cook authentic Goan specialities. Apart from the regular food items, our Shravan specials are khatkhate, payas, ambadyache sasav, chanyacho ros, mooga gathi, patolyo, pineapple sasav, mangane, masale bhat, kurkuri bhendi, sakhar bhat, kothimbur vae, gajarkikheer, kadvan, seviyan kheer, pea rice, tomato saar, mix veg pakoda, soji etc,” shares Kurdikar who obliges deliveries at Panaji, Dona Paula, Bambolim, Old Goa, Merces, Porvorim, Tiswadi, Bardes, Mapusa and Pomburpa.
Authentic Saraswat cuisine at Kokum Curry
Printer turned chef Sapna Sardessai claims, “Our both restaurants, Kokum Curry in Panaji and Kokum Curry at Candolim offer authentic Saraswat recipes throughout the month of Shravan, which we have been continuing for four years now, since the Kokum Curry opened at Candolim in 2021. I curate the menus with a great deal of thought and care. Our food, by and large, is naturally vegan. We avoid dairy products as much as possible. On weekends, we dispense close to a 100 Shravan thalis for lunch alone.”
Sapna’s menus keep changing every week. “This is to keep the enthusiasm alive. It is wonderful to see that youth are also enjoying themselves. The response is phenomenal. It grows with every passing week. One can see the palpable enthusiasm in people to return to their roots in terms of flavour and variety that we offer,” she quips. Calling it Saatvik Shraavan, Sapna’s weekly thali menu contains fresh flavours and seasonal veggies for a month-long elevated experience. All preparations are without onion and garlic, and the sweet dish changes every day.
Some of the mouth watering special dishes here are – Paalechi bhaji, chanyache tonaak, kaarathyacho kunvoll, alluvadi, sabudanyachi khichdi, beetroot-curd raita, voddiacho ros, tefall kadi, floweranche lonche, buknni, muttley, moogache kanna, tendli-green peas upkari, khathkhate, ambe dal, nirpansachyo/faagla foddi, karathaychi kismoor, ambaddeache saasav, tomatache saar, harvya mirsangechi kadi, patolli, kangachi kheer, vallichi bhaji, moogachyo gaathi, ghosaleachi kaapa, voddiachi kismoor, gazarachi koshimbir, ambaddeachi uddamethi, vovyachi kadi, limbache lonche, puranachi nevri, manganne etc.
In the coming weeks Kokum Curry will offer moogachi usal, aakurache tonaak, mirsangeche raite, kothambir vadi, anssachi karam, toushyachi koshimbir, kolmbo, mirachi kadi, gaddeache lonche, sukurundo, Goadann, Hrishi Panchamichi bhaji, cauliflower-batat tonaak, aalyache raite, capsicum kaapa, kellyachi karamm, batatacho kunval, makyachi toi, phannachi kadi, ukdicho modak and pais.
‘Shravan Pangat’ at Dr Malik’s Farm
Dr Malik’s Farm in Hasapur Pernem embraced a unique concept of Shravan Pangat on Sundays, serving Goan food on a banana leaf, in a very traditional way right so that the person does not have to get up if he/she wants more. It reminds one of the seasonal foods that mothers and grandmothers cooked – healthy, aromatic and fresh. Around 15 super Goan specialities without onion or garlic are served. It is a traditional, freshly cooked unlimited meal served on banana leaf for Rs 1000 per person offers additional perks like breakfast, lunch, evening snack, farm visit and access to natural water swimming pool. The same menu is available on weekdays on pre-order. Only lunch is charged Rs 500.
“We are repeating the Shravan Pangat experience on every Sunday owing to an overwhelming response. And we plan to continue it even after Shravan. It’s a truly farm to table menu – a small effort from our side to help people experience the true culture of Goa. We targeted non-Goans settled in Goa, who are pure vegetarians and who want to explore pure Goan veg food,” shares Sawani Shetye Malik.
Sawani claims that their ‘Shravan Pangat’ menu is different from what one gets in hotels. The 90 % of the food ingredients came from the farm and neighbourhood – limbache raite, tels, komchyo (bamboo shoots) gravy, avalyache lonche, nirpansachyo fodi, taikilo-kudduk mix bhaji, ghosalyachi bhaji, kelichi bhaji, sasav, bitaache raite, chanyacho ros, patoli, tandalachi kheer, solkadi, varan with ghee, muthlyo, patolyo, gulkand paan etc. The visitors could pluck a fresh paan of their choice and gulkand was served on it after the meal.
“Except for one group that had youngsters, most people above 35 who knew the value of this food, enjoyed it with nostalgia in a farm setting with all the greens around, a stream flowing, with a visit to gaushala, offering a gaupuja or feeding the cow. It was a perfect combo,” says Sawani.
Goa Portuguesa: Offering taste of Goa in Mumbai
The taste and flavours of Goa have travelled far and wide across India, and to all the corners of the globe. The founders of Goa Portuguesa Group Dr Suhas Awchat and Goa born master chef Deepa Awchat have been celebrating Shravan Food Festival in Mumbai for the last 18 years at their restaurants. “In 2023, we presented the 108 vegetarian dishes from ‘Goa Portuguesa’, ‘Diva Maharashtracha’ and Dakshin Culture Curry’ which came to be known as Shraavan Yatra,” states Deepa, who won global gourmand award for her Goa Portuguesa cookbook.
Owing to the long-standing demand by taste-bud connoisseurs and foodies, this year Diva Maharashtracha is offering for the first time the traditional Hindu Goan and Maharashtrian delicacies not available in any commercial establishment in Mumbai. These are farali kachori, pineapple amti, moong and cashew usal, batata and shengdana rassa, masala bhat with katachi amti, sabudana khichadi, rajgira and shingada flour puri, amboli, khamang kakadi, dates and sweet potato halwa, sabudana sweet potato kheer etc. Also available is A la Cartè Shravan delicacies cooked in healthy olive oil and Satvik wines.
“The menu, pioneered and concocted by us, is just right and elaborate with many ‘for the first time over in Mumbai’ delicacies introduced every day with new homemade recipes originating from the kitchens of Goa and Maharashtra and are not available in any restaurant in Mumbai,” claims Deepa who donates the profits of Shravan food festival to NGOs every year.
