It would be a sad day if the diversity and authenticity of Goan food is lost out in the name of experimenting
One tiny part of the Internet was going up in flames because of this, and I didn't even realise what I was missing. That is, till my good friend Anthony sent across a link to an Instagram post. It was as if the the Third World War was breaking out over the issue of Goan food!
Some influencer (this is almost a bad-word now), had apparently been experimenting with Goan food. She ended up wishing everyone "Viva São João" and then introducing all to her new experiment. Patoleo with sausage.
(Patoleo has been described by some as 'stuffed tumeric leaf wraps'. Traditionally, the stuffing for this has been of shredded coconut, rice flour paste and palm jaggery. It is cooked by wrapping and steaming in turmeric leaves.)
Okay, so what's wrong with this experimentation?
At one level, nothing. Everyone has a right to experiment with food. In whichever way they wish. Who are we to tell them what is to be eaten, and what isn't? Do we need culinary policing even in our day and age?
That's one side of the argument. But there are two points of view here. This is what evokes mixed feelings about such an issue.
Shubham Pai's response [http://alturl.com/bm3ut] puts things in context. In 11 brief sentences, the young man mixes humour and sarcasm to make his point. Do take a look at it; enjoy! To me, the storm in a cooking dish raises so many issues we here face.
Tracking discussions on this issue was fun. Opinion got split over whether Goa is being too touchy over simple things, or whether this all reeks of an attitude problem (of The Other defining your food) which is getting serious.
Of course, culinary experimentation is natural. Food cultures evolve. New combinations and diasporic fusions come up all the time. Goan food is itself a blend of foods from all over the world. Not just Portuguese and Indian, but many, many more.
(As Fatima Gracias, author of the book on the history of Goan food 'Cozinha de Goa' and other works notes, food influences from all over the world show up in Goa. Even Christmas confectionery or 'consuada' draws on cultures from Portugal, Indian, Arabic, Malaysia and Brazilian. Dishes we today consider Goan have come in from Mozambique, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia. The last three have their own version of the 'bebingka', as they spell it. Kerala and Sri Lanka, Konkan and Malabar, French and Chinese, African and more... all these places have influences on Goan food.)
Besides that, personal food tastes are subjective. Experimentation could lead to innovation. Nobody has a monopoly over food usage; and we don't need a Food Police here.
Goan food has been changing in recent times, and how! It's not farfetched to argue that many locals feel that their food (also cultures, festivals, sometimes music and celebrations) are being taken-over, redefined, and distorted. In a way they have absolutely no say about.
Recently, during an online poll created by this columnist, the opinion was overwhelmingly clear that most responding felt that even the São João festival was being commercialised beyond healthy limits. Till recently, this was a village based rustic celebration, done in wholly unorganised ways. You could not even get a schedule of where the parade would reach when. Now, the festival has shifted to hotels, with loud music, and sometimes even water sprinklers (if the monsoons don't show up that day.)
Goan food has got distorted in a big way over recent decades. The watery, unspiced version of 'Goan food' that is available on the coastal belt has been created for the Euro tourists, who once came there in big numbers. Any resemblance with the original is purely coincidental. Even some prominent Goan restaurants, who had earned a good reputation, sadly decided to water down their culinary offerings. All to meet the needs of the Euro tourists. Vin-daaa-loooh is a Goan import popular in Britain; you might not recognise it.
Then came the desi tourist, who, instead of opting to encounter Goan food, wanted to have a taste of their own 'home food' even while on holiday. This shift over to veg food in parts of Goa has come about because of the strength of tourist numbers.
This is not natural growth. It is a push coming from the strength of numbers. One that leads to a loss of diversity on our planet, and a problem that almost every small culture faces, when it gets overwhelmed by larger ones. It would be a sad day if the diversity and authenticity of Goan food is lost out in the name of experimenting.
Goa can absorb a lot of new food influences. But while doing so, it should not lose its own.
Similar 'conflict' over food comes up from many parts of India. Stronger cultures want to 'define' food as something they see as normal, not what the local population prefers. In a sense, this could be called culinary colonialism.
Some foods are treated as acceptable. The dominant Indian view today might reject "non-veg" food, when actually the bulk of Indians are meat-eaters. To the extreme purists, even egg might be considered "non veg". In Goa, fish is considered fine at official functions. But why only fish, and why not other diets, which allows people to exercise their choice?
The bottomline is this: We need to understand the issues at hand. Food has been one of Goa's long popular traditions. It needs to evolve, but in what direction? How do we maintain traditions too, before it gets wiped out or completely distorted? One suspects waiting for governments to take a stand is a hopeless approach. Citizens need to preserve that what they care for. Seemingly light-hearted events like this only remind us of the reality.
