Viva Panjim, Goa – The perfect place for Goan Food

Set in an old Goan home, with its authentic Goan cuisine, and an award winning Chef, Viva Panjim was highly recommended. Lonely Planet, Outlook Traveler, Time Goa Guide and Tripadvisor sang its praises. This was one of the two places to go for Goan cuisine– the other being Longuinhos, which was a let down.

If the weather is good, I highly recommend walking to it from the Church of our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. You get the feel of passing through an old world, beautiful and forgotten. The architecture and people will keep you interested in the 15 minute walk. See the story below to understand how outrageously helpful the people really are!

First, the restaurant. We sat down outside in the street, and experimented with our order. In addition to the Kingfish Curry and Rice, the Rawa Masala Fish, Chicken Stuffed Papad – we ordered Brinjal Chips! Brinjal Chips surprisingly, turned out be absolutely fantastic! The rest of the food was great too – though you might want to request them to make the food extra spicy if that’s how you like it. The foreigners outnumbered the Indians here – which explained the mild spices.

Eating on the street

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had Bebinca for dessert, which was fantastic and beautiful as always. The chief chef Mrs Linda came outside to talk to us just when I was reading about her.

She said “I am so happy to see Indians coming home as well”, and looked like she meant it. We were the only Indians out of the 30 odd people eating there that afternoon.

 

Surprisingly, unlike other great restaurants in Goa, this one was very reasonably priced. So I kept a copy of the bill. The meal for two just cost us Rs 475. I hope to go back to Viva Panjim and try their Xacuti, Vindaloo and Sea Food Platter soon.

On our way back, we thought of picking some fruits for our walks. There was a small open shop with beautiful fresh fruits – strawberries, grapes, bananas and more, but empty. We waited for a few minutes and thought of walking away. Just then, there was this lady walking on the other side of the street who came up to us.

She said - “I will call the shopkeeper, you guys select the fruits”.

Perplexed at buying fruits from a shop from a passerby we hesitatingly started selecting fruits.

This lady then started calling out - “Is anybody here?”

A guy who was probably eating his lunch, looking at his hands dripping with rice and curry, came out and asked her what she wanted.

She said - “You have some customers - Is it okay if they buy stuff and leave the money here?”

He said-“Fine” and went back in to finish his lunch. She then said - “Oh I’ll have to disturb him again to ask him the price”. So here’s this guy, who doesn’t care what price his goods are sold, nothing is more important than lunch. And there’s this woman, who would go out of the way to help some tourists, in this heat. That’s Goa for you in a flash – there are people who take a 4 hour afternoon ‘siesta’ and people who would go out of their way to help you.

She then shouted again, asking him the price and then told us to keep 60 rupees in his shop. We did that and left, so did the woman! The guy didn’t bother to come out.

Sher-e-Punjab – Panjim, Goa - What a surprise!

 

 

As my mouth waters remembering the extremely soft Paneer and Chicken Tikka with just the right amount of spices in every little bite, I marvel at how we were pretty sure about not going there.

Sher-e-Punjab, Panjim was listed as an “Our Pick” by Lonely Planet, Goa which generally put a restaurant to the top of our list. However, it didn’t make much sense eating Punjabi food in Goa. Viva Panjim with its popular Goan cuisine seemed like a better choice.

An Interesting house on Altinho Hill

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, that particular day, as I was enjoying the walk down Altinho Hill, admiring the Portuguese architecture, Rubal was ready to kill and eat me, she was that hungry.  Her look when I stopped to click another picture made me believe her.

Looking forward to the beautiful walks – we had not hired a bike for our two days here. This meant a walk during the middle of the day in the sweltering heat and there weren’t any auto rickshaws or taxis on Altinho hill (at that time of the day).

The walk down Altinho Hill

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we reached to the base of the hill, we finally got a rickshaw, and I took out my list of restaurants and maps. I told the driver to take us to Viva Panjim or Horse Shoe, but he gave us a blank look.

Sensing Rubal’s frustration and worrying about being eaten alive, I asked him desperately – “Do you know any restaurant around here ?”

He said - “Sher-e-Punjab”, and grinned from ear to ear.

Outside Sher-e-Punjab Panjim

How often would you get a chance to recommend a Punjabi restaurant to a Punjabi in Goa ? I think we made his day when we said - Yes, take us there. Rubal finally smiled.

The restaurant was pretty full, which is always a good sign. The service was fast, and the food delicious. Rubal and I agreed that this was definitely the best Paneer Tikka we ever had. The chicken Tikka was great too and the rates very reasonable.

We left and ate Almond Rocher at the nearby Bread n More for desert.

The Dutch are Crazy … in a good way

Outside the Dreamcatcher resort on the beautiful Palolem beach in Goa, I saw an almost endless line of auto-rickshaws decorated with pink stickers. Might be just another reality contest, I thought.

Inside I ran into some crazy Dutch. There were about 34 of them, driving 17 auto-rickshaws from Mumbai to Chennai via Goa. 2000 Kms on the Indian roads. Most of them were visiting India for the first time, and started it by driving a auto-rickshaw through the Mumbai traffic on their first day. One of the guys told me he called his folks up that evening to tell them he loved them, and wasn’t sure if he would ever see them again. He said that first night of driving through Mumbai was the greatest adventure any of them had every experienced.

The rickshaws weren’t brand new, some were quite old, I saw one which had a huge crack running through it. I was shaking my head in disbelief hearing their stories, till they told me they were doing this for charity. Each team was raising at least 2000 Euros each for street children in India, some even more.

They were used to Indians on the streets waving to a ‘white’ person in the backseat only to break into laughter, when they saw another white skinned person driving it.  The importance of horns on Indian roads took some getting used to as well. How we Indians used lanes was definitely nerve wracking for most of them.

There was a brother-sister team, a father-daughter team, a newly married couple, and some guys who had worked desk jobs all their life before coming here. With funny names - “The Dukes of India”, “Honeymoon Challenge”, “Ganesh Express”, “Shanti Shanti” , most of them had put in their own savings, and some had sponsors but they all agreed it was a trip they would never forget!

Check out their website www.bombaychallenge.com . Its in dutch, so you would have to translate it, Google does that automatically if you using their toolbar or Chrome.

They have another Challenge in November 2010, again all in good cause, spread the word - who knows there’s a crazy Dutch out there who’d catch the drift.

http://www.bombaychallenge.com/2010/Registration.aspx

http://www.bombaychallenge.com/2010/FAQ.aspx 

 

 

 

They often had to stop for hours fixing their tuk tuks.

All for Charity – the teams were raising at least 2000 Euro each for street children in India

 

With Jonn’o – Not sure I got his first name right. Well, pretty sure he didn’t get mine! :)

Most of the photographs courtesy the teams, please let me know if there’s a link I am missing.

http://www.thedukesofindia.nl/

http://bombaychallenge.blogspot.com/

http://www.reclame-enzo.nl/bombay

http://www.shantishanti.nl/

http://www.honeymoonchallenge.com/

http://hethaagsemonster.blogspot.com/

http://www.tuktuklovers.hyves.nl/

http://www.india2010.nl/

http://it2india.waarbenjij.nu/

http://www.fireteam.web-log.nl/

http://www.andrewmason.nl/

Rent or Charter a Train to Shimla

On Feb 13 this year, I along with most of my family got late for the train. When one of my older relatives said - “If you get late for the train, it doesn’t wait for you”. We all smiled and said - “Well, this one does!”.

We had chartered the train from Kalka to Shimla. It was a party for family and friends after our marriage. It turned out extremely well, and a lot of people have asked me about this, so I’ll put in details here.

The coaches are fabulous !

Chartered the train – ermm … What exactly do you mean? 

Thanks to the Indian Railways, you can now OWN a UNESCO world heritage train for a ride through the hills. Its only for 5 hours, but for that time you are on top of the world. The train goes through the beautiful hills, and 102 tunnels where you can scream our heart out. You can stop the train when you want, and walk into the hills. It has luxurious palace kind of coaches.

How much does it cost ?

The pricing starts from just Rs. 25000! There were 50 of us, so we had 6 coaches of varying capacity and it came to about Rs 40,000 and there was a refundable deposit for around Rs. 40,000. The IRCTC people were extremely professional all through and for a fee even arranged a lunch in Barog.

You can get the details from the Indian Railways website - http://indianrailways.gov.in/indianrailways/charter_a_train.jsp

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask in a comment, and I’ll update this post.

Why not just book tickets for 50 people ?

I thought about this initially, but the cost of getting the complete train was pretty reasonable, and the heritage coaches you get are worth checking out. You don’t get them in a normal train.

The ability to stop the train and walk up the mountain to the next station and have the train waiting for you was incredible.

Nowadays we rarely get to sit down and spend a few hours talking to each other. A train journey is a special experience. I had one of the most meaningful conversations of my life with one of my relatives I had never before spent more than a few minutes talking.

As we got down from the train, my 70 year old well traveled aunt made a comment that I will remember for a long time. She came up to me, and told me this train was one of the most amazing things she had ever seen. She said she had seen a lot, but never thought she would travel in her own train with relatives through the hills. For a few hours we all lived that dream!

 

My cousins had a load of fun, they truly made the train their own! It was all in good humor! I am sure their pictures below will make you smile :)

Day 2 – Driving Around – there’s Russian everywhere

Driving is a pleasure in Goa, the roads are narrow, but they are rarely overcrowded. You would see a white male trying to balance himself on a bike every 20 meters and an odd gal riding a heavy Enfield comfortably. We got a Honda scooter outside the hotel for Rs 200 per day and went to Calungute market looking out for all the restaurants we wanted to eat at. Most of them were closed at 2 PM in the afternoon, Goans are smart and lazy people - Why work 12 hours when you can work 6 ?

We found Infantaria – an all day dining restaurant. Ordered golden fried prawns, and their special pasta. The desert was Bebinca - a 7 layered Goan specialty, which was served with ice cream(thanks Manu for the recommendation). Yummy!

Ate dinner at Kim Faa, a Chinese restaurant – there were loads of Chinese here, which seemed like a good sign. We ate special pepper prawn and Hunan Prawn with gravy and rice. The prawns looked pretty fresh, and the Hunan gravy was spicy, hot and went very well with the rice. Ate desert at East Meets West, a restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet – Lemon Meringue Pie and Sherry Trifle (Sponge, Strawberries Custard and cream).  

One of the things we’ve noticed is all the shops have Russian translation, strange for a city that recently seems to be hating the Russian tourists. Russian’s are pretty stingy I’ve read, bringing their own shrimps and drinks to the restaurant. They have had fights with locals, and lot of them land up here thinking people here know Russian. Some Russians are driving taxies taking business away from the locals.  I also read a story about a BJP leader being angry that Russians are ruining Indian moral’s by dressing in skimpy/no clothes!

However, seems like their business is pretty important for the locals, as they have promptly put up Russian translation signs everywhere. I read in the local newspaper that a local Russian newspaper is doing the rounds too.

Shopping was a delight again - I loved a shopkeeper who told us to come back, and that he’d be ready to lower the price of everything. When I smiled, he explained that if he keeps a fixed price, people are not that happy, as they are, when they have negotiated a good price!

Day 1 – Shop all night long in Goa

The day began early with the 6 AM Shatabdi which really makes me proud. The breakfast was ‘Wow’ - Paneer Cutlets, Parantha, Wada Sambhar, Boiled eggs, Omelets, corn flakes and baked vegetables. You don’t realize when you get to Delhi, in between the various courses.

We took the flight to Goa, but another day, I would love to take the train. Have heard great things about the scenery. The flight was uneventful, other than 4 babies aboard the flight, all of whom synced to produce the highest frequency baby cries I have ever heard.

I called the hotel to ask for a pickup earlier in the day and they asked for Rs 1800, which seemed high. We got the pre-paid taxi from the airport for Rs 900.

The drive to the hotel, Lazy Lagoon in Arpora (near the Baga beach), was delightful. Made me ecstatic, and brought that awesome happy feeling that comes when you see less traffic, lots of trees and beautiful roads. Rubal got the mapmyindia GPS working, and we confirmed the route suggested by it, with the route that the driver was taking us on. We plan to use this as we drive around to the extreme north and the extreme south.

The Hotel had a very inviting swimming pool , considering the 32 degrees temp outside, and we jumped in as soon as we dropped the luggage. We rested the rest of the evening, and debated going out vs. ordering room service at around 9 PM. We decided to go for a walk and the next 3 hours were outstanding!

The small road to Baga beach is surrounded by restaurants with innovative lights, shops that sell everything from books, to magic tricks and of course bags and clothes. There are kashmiris, Tibitians, Rajisthani .. I had read a lot about this being the off season but all the restaurants were full of people and there were quite a few restaurants.

We saw Britto’s while walking, and as was in our list to check out, we stepped into the sand to the beach side restaurant. Britto’s isn’t your extremely posh restaurant, but its worth checking out. We drank the watermelon juice, which was definitely the best we had every had (update : Over the next couple of days – we have concluded that all beach shacks have great fresh juices, the restaurants in the city, not so much). The Sea food platter was decent – the baked crab , and prawn cocktail delicious. The Chicken cafreal wasn’t anything to write about, other than the fact that it made a good dip for the chips.

We went down to the beach from Britto’s and saw about a hundred shacks and restaurants lining the beach. There were quite a few people, and it didn’t seem like it was 11.30 PM. There were many quiet spots on the beach though and Rubal had a good time playing with the waves – getting scared, and scaring it.

We walked for a long time, noticing the different beach shacks – one of them had lamps made of beautiful bottles, and was called Bottles Shack!

We browsed through a few shops, and Rubal pointed out how, retail therapy goes on so late in the late in Goa. You never have to worry about shops closing at 8 PM. We took a taxi back, at around mid night, and it felt strange going back, looking at people still moving around as if it was 7 PM in the evening. I felt I was going to sleep early, something which never happens when I am in Chandigarh.

Goa Vacation - Day 0 ( Preparing for my longest vacation)

As I take my first vacation longer than a couple of days in 7 years, I have been going crazy planning (as per my friends). I have been reading loads of travel books, my bedside is stacked with travel magazines, and I have been researching everything I can find about Goa on Tripadvisor, and other newspapers.

With all books and the reading ... today I surprised myself, when I started singing a supposedly Goan song -  "Naam hai mera Fonseca, baby humein tum nahi Jaanta"  :)

We'll be spending 24 nights - 10 in North Goa , 10 in South Goa, 2 in Panjim (Central Goa) and a couple in Chorla Ghat, east Goa. 

Initially, we went to a host of travel agents in Chandigarh, as a ready made package made sense considering the very little time we had. However, all of them, told us that it was too long a duration to spend in a small place like Goa. They suggested adding a few places, or going abroad. Rubal and I, however, wanted to spend time with each other, and knew we wouldn't get bored even if there wasn't much to do.

After a couple of weekends of research, we believe, after 24 nights we'll come back wanting to go back and explore Goa some more. Here are some of the things I am looking forward to.

1. Walking through the villages, the old city, the scenic beauty. 

Take a trek to Chapora ("The ride to Chapora felt like straight out of a movie. Verdant hills, lush fields, clouds turning from white to grey as we raced them, and even a double rainbow")

See the outlook traveller article for more 10 Great Walks in Goa

2. Try all the Goan Foods -

Goan fish curry
Garlic Prawns
Chicken Xacuti, curry with lots of coconut.
Pork Vindaloo
Benebica - Desert

Just writing that list has made me hungry (More details below)

3. Explore the still tranquil North beaches (Mandrem, Aswem) and the quiet South beaches (Patnem, Polem)

We plan to stay in one of the quiet beach shacks in the last week and we'll review and finalize it during the first couple of weeks.

One of the places we really like is Dwarka

 

4. Wildernest Nature Resort Chorla Ghat

Rubal's recommendation. This is the side of Goa off the beaten track. A nature resort with waterfall treks, and extremely eco-friendly. They supposedly have a stunning infinity pool. This resort has great story, and is off the beaten track.

5. Stay in cruise boat for the night - watch the sunrise, and the sunset

6. Go Snorkeling to Grand Island

7. See the Silent Parties at Palolem Beach

8. Visit the Butterfly Conservatory Of Goa near tropical spice garden, Ponda

There are a million other things, in a list that Rubal and I are updating every couple of hours. I'll put that in a separate post. 

For now here's a photo of Rubal just after she finished packing today

 

 

Here are all the restaurants we are interested in eating at (Comments from Travel books and TripAdvisor) -

Aswem -
Lunch at La Plage before sunset

Baga -
Eat at Britto's , East meets West, Nick's Place, Anthony's
Mackie's at Baga /Ingo's Saturday Night Bazaar at Arpora

Calungute -
Eat at After Eight's(or Sevens), Soup & Momos Tibetian Kitchen (Rubal's interested in this), Aggie's Cafe (Prawn Chilli Fry at Aggies Beach Shack with a garlic cheese nan), Le Jardin , Souza Lobo (Great review on TA, long wait but great sea food. Try king fish and pomfret ), Claudinas shack (Entertainment night on Thursday), prawn sizzlers served at at Boscos.

Candolim -
Eat at Shining Star Beach Resort, Republic of Noodles (One of the top 20 restaurants in Asia as per the Miele Guide - crunchy prawn chips , Bangkok Style Pahd Thai flat noodles ), A Reverie, Victor's , Claudinas Shack , Shivers near Kingfisher villa , Lloyd's (Pork Vindaloo, Sorpotel and Sausage Pau. Just the way your granny would have made them had she been Goan. )

Sinquerim-
Eat at Taj Holiday Village ( The Banyan Tree at the Taj serves fiery Thai cuisine. )

Panjim-

Eat at-
Viva Panjim(sausage rice, fish curry, xacuti, vindaloo and cafreal. ), Cafe Chocolatti, Jorges restaurant /horse shoe/ hotel venite, Deli Darbar, Panjim city
Mum’s Kitchen in Miramar in Panjim—they do an excellent crab in coconut gravy called crab xec-xec.
In Alto de Porvorim, is O’Coquerio where the squid masala and the prawn stuffed papaads are as much of a draw as the table where the infamous Charles Sobraj was arrested.
Dinner on Noah's Arc
http://www.indiatravelite.com/goa/noahsarkgoa.htm

For a traditional Goan breakfast at Longuinhos in Margao te chorizo sausage-and-eggs with pao bread is a must. These air dried and smoked sausages are cooked into a thick hot sauce with onion, potatoes and tomatoes—scrumptious.

Bogmalo
Eat at Joets (Grilled garlic prawns )

Utorda
Check out Zeebop on the sea (with great sea food) - Highly recommended by Outlook Traveller and Times Food Guide

Betalbatim
Martin’s Corner in Betalbatim which also is in South Goa, is the most happening restaurant—the seafood is ocean fresh

Agonda
Tandoori Kingfish, Madhu Shack, Agonda Beach

Palolem
Eat at - Mackeral spiced and fried in Semolina. Served at the Annapurna restaurant or Hira bar in and around Palolem.

Patnem -
Eat at Anant's , try Gazpacho at Home Beachfront, Patnem

Rubal suggested that we check our Body Mass Index (BMI) on the Wii before and after the trip, so here are a couple of pictures for the record. Lets see how things pan out after 24 days !