For foodies, it came as a New Year boon, on January 2 this year when Café Lovii decided to set up its food truck in the BPS Sports Club complex in the heart of Margao.
The product of Vasant and Vatsala Hede, a couple who loves to cook and eat good, healthy food, the Café Lovii Food Truck is all about quality, home-cooked food.
“Our food is prepared with good quality sunflower oil and lots of love. Hence we named our food truck Café Lovii, because that’s all we wish to serve to foodies like us,” smiles Vasant Hede, an internship head and marketing adviser at Chowgule College, Margao who has co-founded Café Lovii with his wife Vatsala Hede, a visual artist who’s had her art exhibited in India and abroad.
Why Café Lovii? Vasant shares, “My better-half Vatsala and I have always been passionate about nutritious and tasty food. We have been trying different recipes (Goan as well as other cuisines) in our home kitchen since 2013 and sharing this food with others was always something we dreamt of. Cafe Lovii Food Truck is an extension of our kitchen. Nutritious healthy food made by Goans with a Goan flavour, cooked with good quality oil and other fresh local produce, is something that you can associate always with Cafe Lovii Food Truck. We offer slow cooked, good quality homemade food at affordable price. It’s not fast food. The minimum price is Rs 50 (homemade chocolate brownie) and maximum is Rs 120.”
The Hede couple is busy through the day in their respective professions but as the evening approaches, they drive their food truck down to the BPS Sports Club complex as the regulars at the club await anxiously for the yummy surprises to arrive. Will it be tomato cilantro pasta with garlic bread, or fresh tomato carrot soup, or avocado sandwich or a banana cinnamon mini pie, they wonder.
If it’s Thursday, they know there’ll be grilled chicken wings in homemade sauce or creamy cheesy pasta. There are surprises on an alternative basis, and the overall menu is flexible. Goan poli (flat bread) stuffed with different types of items (chicken, tuna, prawns, eggs, mushrooms or veggies) and grilled with cheese is the favourite of most. There are other things too on the menu.
“Our day starts early with shopping fresh vegetables, fruits, poultry, eggs and fish “ all purchased on a daily basis. We believe in delivering freshness and I have learnt it from home, my mother Ashwini Hede and my wife Vatsala,” quips Vasant who manages the cooking and delivering part at the food truck while Vatsala handles the cash.
The food truck, wonderfully designed by artist Fabian Gonsalves, spells their theme “ to serve delicious dishes with a smile. “It is the first food truck that Fabian has designed and he as well as us, are happy with the result. Nowhere is there any commercial look, and our truck offers a happy, feel-good feeling. On the backdrop of blue, there are greenish yellow palm trees, smiling people, eating food and a caricature of a boy and a girl serving food and not to forget a dog, as both of us are dog lovers and have five dogs at home,” quips Vasant.
“We want to cater for private occasions with a live counter experience with our food truck parked at the venue, delivering hot and spicy delicacies as per the demand,” says Vasant who just lived one such experience on May 26 when he and Vatsala, both travelled to North Goa with their food truck on an invite from CMM Store at Merces for their Sofa Carnival. “Saturday was a really busy day at Café Lovii that kept us busy from 11.30 am to 8 pm. But both of us and our customers at the venue, enjoyed the day at this furniture carnival festival,” admits Vasant.
People who enjoyed at his food truck were many “ some from the CMM store too. A delighted graphic designer Gajakant said, “The chicken wings were so tasty and soft. It is nice to see this sweet couple make these recipes together. The result is definitely awesome!”
Amin Priolkar, who works at the marketing department at CMM exclaimed, “When you aren’t hungry at all and yet end up hogging and drooling for more, Cafe Lovii Food Truck is a pit stop for us every time we are summoned by the goddess of leisure to South Goa.”
A civil engineer from Mapusa, Brendon D’Sousa commented, “Great place for a twist on traditional Goan food, all wrapped in the humble poli. Tuna and cheese is my favourite, but I also recommend their delicious choco mousse that’ll have you licking your fingers.”
The Hedes also had a similar experience when Cafe Lovii participated in Margao Food Trail, an evolution of Goan food led by a food expert, Varun Hegde on Mother’s Day, May 13 this year. The trail began at 5.30 pm from Margao Municipality with visits by the participants to spots that were known to serve good Goan food - a cafe established in 1935, another started in 1950 and Cafe Lovii, started in 2018.
“We were happy to be included in this food trail, though we are newly opened,” feels Vasant.
Having had a positive feedback, his goal to open Café Lovii as a full-fledged restaurant soon is all the more strengthened.
“Unlike our food truck, which is open only in the evenings, our café will be open from morning to evening. And though we serve it in our truck, ours is not street food. It is home cooked nutritious food, served in a truck from 6.30 to 9 pm,” states Vasant whose family from both the sides, has been very supportive in this venture.
