BY TARA NARAYAN

IF YOU’RE a true blue Konkani at heart and at palate you will want to discover this fairly come-lately and sparkling with life eatery called Konkani (Coastal Food Delicacy Restaurant), opposite Café Tato in Margao. I got attracted to it on a recent visit to Margao and recognized the young couple Gauri and Avinash Borkar who run it from another location, they’re into traditional foods and condiments and often participate in local foodie exhibitions and fairs. The place is packed at lunchtime, you may have to wait outside but the wait is worth it just to relish a whole lot of traditional Konkani fare from Malvan upwards…right, they’ve got the crisp, filling Malvani wade (thick crisp puri because of urad dal in the dough), and some prized seafood and mutton/chicken fare done in masala and suka fry be it paneer or mushrooms, or squids or mori (shark) … an entire range of seafood from mussels (shinane) to oyster (kalva) and prawns, a variety of fish, crab, etc., is to be found here on the menu in large and small portions. Eat just ladyfish or kingfish or pomfret curry-rice or order the thali meal deals e.g. plain rice, fish curry, fried fish, kismur, solkadi, sabji, pickle, in the fish curry-rice Malvani style or prawn curry-rice Goan style (Rs.25 and 35 respectively, a bargain of course, they even have a chicken Konkani thali).

At the Konkani Cafe in Margao. . . Gauri Borkar at the counter and a cosy eatry specialising in traditional cooking from Malvan to Mangalore, including fish curry-rice and other much-loved seafood dishes.

The basic thali meal may be a little frugal but you may supplement it with a side dish from the wide range of side dishes for a perfectly satisfying and economical meal e.g. try the chicken Konkani-wade (Rs.40) or one of the veggie items…they’ve got Maharashtrian zunka (a nutritious spicy gram flour mash which I love especially if it’s got lots of chopped onion and fresh green chilly-coriander leaf in it, usually goes with large-sized jowari (sorghum) or bajri cha pith (pearl millet flour) roti, to be washed down with solkadi naturally (it’s hard to find a decent solkadi in an eatery in Goa but this one comes somewhere close to perfect). The alternative to solkodi is plain kokum sarbat, both are a wonderful way to round off a meal because of their digestive properties.

You know I thoroughly approve and find the soft drinks of the Konkan coast preferable to any of the promoted-to-death acidic bottled drinks…at Konkani you have a choice of the far more agreeable solkadi or kokam or amla sarbat and pachak soda, also a good thin buttermilk (not to be confused with sweet or salty lassi please). Seafood predominates but vegetarian numbers apart from zunka are palak pulao, stuffed brinjals, an interesting kaju usal which I must try another time. I generally end up ordering mushroom masala whenever I can find it because I love mushrooms and this is the mushrooms season, no? It’s idiotic to eat canned mushrooms when one can so easily get fresh mushrooms in Goa, there’s a world of difference between the two both vis-à-vis fresh flavour and bite. Do you know that mushrooms are a crop which can be grown in total darkness or diffused light and where no other crop will grow, even in old wooden shoes as one Belgian cook once put it somewhere! That’s why mushrooms have no colour naturally, yet they have nutritive properties and keep in the refrigerator for quite some time…don’t know about you but I could eat mushrooms everyday.

The wide mutton, chicken and egg choice I suppose must be Kolhapuri or Manglorean in influence, egg bhuzne and stuffed egg masala are much loved, hard-to-find. Well, this is to say I’m recommending Konkani in Margao and not only because pretty Gauri Borkar sitting at the cashier’s counter has a sweet welcoming smile on her face. The day’s board of fare is chalked up legibly for all to see and they’re public-friendly albeit in restrictive quarters (makes for more togetherness while eating!)…“We care for your health. We use refined oil for all cooking and Aquaguard pure drinking water.” The turnover is quick so that alone guarantees that everything is cooked to sell out early. And yes, how can I forget! Do not forget to leave some space in your tummy for the piece de resistance dessert, the nachne satwo or pudding…it’s delicately sweet and absolutely unforgettable, in fact I bought some to take home. It’s worth going out all the way to Margao just to eat at Konkani on a rain-filled day (drive carefully though). Eateries like these are a boon for those who must eat out every day or love to eat out without going broke.

Back