The Goan Laddoo: Serving authentic Goan cuisine

Piya and Amey Vaingankar at 'The Goan Laddoo' in Panaji.

With no time to breathe, Piya and Amey Vaingankar are busy taking orders, packing hampers and dealing with walk-in customers during the peak season of Diwali at their small outlet ‘The Goan Laddoo’ near the Ganapati temple at St Inez in Panaji. The store may be just three-year old but the Vaingankars have been making different varieties of authentic traditional Goan laddoos for the last 13 years, albeit from home.

The business began from home and was initiated by Amey’s parents – Deepashree and Chandrakant Vaingankar, both of whom ventured into the food business after their retirement in 2012. “My mother worked in the education department and father at the Government Polytechnic. Both of them retired in the same year, 2012. Since then their journey of making traditional Goan food items has been non-stop. Now my wife Piya and I have joined hands to expand the business and we also have 16 women who assist us in the making of our products,” shares Amey, who continues working for an IT company from the UK.

Amey’s mother Deepashree and better-half Piya are well-versed in the exact proportions for their recipes while the women employees assist in other kitchen work like chopping and cutting and filling tiffins. Apart from making 16 types of laddoos, ‘The Goan Laddoo’ also accepts catering orders for 150-200 persons. Their counter at St Inez witnesses a daily footfall of foodies who pre-book their orders and pick up later.

“I have around 8000 contacts on my WhatsApp. They check my status for the daily menu which I upload and book their order. We have around 150-200 walk in customers on a daily basis who come to either pick up their orders of meals, Goan delicacies, savouries, sweets and snacks – all of which is carefully curated to preserve the flavours of Goa,” shares Amey who registered their family business which was running from home, gave it a name ‘The Goan Laddoo’ and started their first outlet at St Inez. It soon gained popularity in the locality and those who visited once kept visiting regularly, week after week.

Each day there was some different dish with homely taste. The Vaingankars realised that the demand for authentic Goan traditional food is increasing day by day in a busy city like Panaji where working people have no time to cook at home and pack their lunchboxes, ‘The Goan Laddoo’ served as the perfect place to get a variety of home-cooked food – Khatkhate, Mangane, Muga Gaathi, Sanna, Patolyo, Shirvolyo, Halwa, Sattv, Methi Pej, Sheero, Payas, Puranpoli etc. People got attracted to these Goan delicacies with motherly touch and taste and the Vaingankars had to increase their food quantity as the demand increased.

“Initially the food quantity would suffice only a handful of people. But as the footfalls grew, we had to increase the quantity cooked at home by my mother-in-law. People began pre-booking their orders and queuing to take-away their packets during lunch time. We are happy that we are catering to the authentic taste preference of the general public of Goa,” smiles Piya, an ex-banker who voluntarily joined her mother-in-law in the family business.

There are 16 different varieties of laddoos made with jaggery and pure ghee. Full moong, moong dal, wheat, wheat-dry fruits, besa, rava, methi, dink, surai rice, ukda rice, ‘maadache godd’ (jaggery made of coconut), multigrain, ragi and dry fruits are ingredients used in these laddoos. Shev, Besan-Rava and Khava laddoos are prepared only on order.

There is a different menu each day of the week, with Sunday off. Monday and Thursdays are pure veg days, while Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday veg as well as non-veg meals are available. The menu is different each day. Mouth-watering home-cooked dishes include Shevya Kheer, Nachni Tijan, Masala Potato Dal, Biya Bhaji, Walpapadi Bhaji, Maadi fry, Godache Vade, Sakharbhat, Chicken Xacuti, Mushrooms Xacuti, Salad, Stuffed Brinjal, Veg Pulav, Urad dal Polle and Sukrunde, Bangdyache Humann, Chana Usal, Bhindi Bhaji, Kalwanche Tonak, Ambade Ross, Toranchi Uddamethi, Gajar Halwa, Polle apart from the rice and chapati. There are also Jowar, Bajra, Nachni and Rice Bhakari. Party snacks like Batatawada, Bread Pakoda, Veg Sandwich are also available on order. All meals and sweets are prepared by the Vaingankars at home, ensuring hygiene and high quality.

The Vaingankars have not adopted any major marketing strategies. “We only rely on social media platforms to reach out to our customers and promote our products. We have a WhatsApp group, as well an Instagram and a Facebook account. Word-of-mouth publicity also helped us gain popularity,” states Amey, adding, “On Fridays, we cook 10 kg of Chicken Xacuti but now-a-days it’s falling short. We will have to increase the quantity.”

The festivals keep the Vaingankars busy as they cater to festive orders for Laddoo, Chakli, Shankarpali, Corn Chiwda, three types of Kapa – Coconut, Potato, Daal and four types of Nevryo – Chunn, Rava, Moog and Tikhat. For Diwali, Ganesh Chaturthi and Christmas the gift hampers begin from Rs 400, 600 and 800. Depending on what the customers choose, the hampers are packed with assorted sweets and snacks.

“I come here often to satisfy my taste buds with authentic Goan cuisine, and hard-to-find recipes. These laddoos have a clear option of sugar or jaggery. Everything tastes better than what we cook at home, as it has that special motherly touch of the elderly lady – Deepashreetai. And the beauty of it is everything here is reasonably priced to suit any pocket,” exclaims a customer at the shop, enjoying a mouth-watering ‘Patolyo’ made of freshly grated coconut and organic jaggery.

Many of the recipes in Goan kitchens are now going extinct with the elderly in the families gone and the younger generation never showed any interest in learning those recipes with their peculiar specialities. Thanks to the Vaingankars, who are keeping the traditional tastes alive, and making us walk through nostalgic memories of childhood.