<p>“Do you want Almondegas de Hottalica? Rissois de Cogumelos? Or, Sopa de Ervilhas com Pro de Alho?” In North Goa’s Ourém, a tony bar and restaurant famed for its Luso-Goan cuisine, Chef Ines Soares was naming dishes that qualified more as tongue-twister than a scrumptious afternoon slurp. I lent an ear to the difficult pronunciation but before I could decode the names, my curiosity hinged on Luso-Goan? What’s Luso-Goan? Simply put, isn’t it Portuguese-Goan? </p>.<p>Well, it surely is. Luso, the dictionary enlightened me, was a prefix that literally means "related to Portugal or the Portuguese", and stems from Lusitania, the ancient Roman province that once covered much of modern Portugal. So, Luso-Goan (Portuguese-Goan) cuisine is shaped by Portuguese flavours, ingredients, and cooking techniques brought during 450 years of Portuguese rule (1510–1961). In the kitchen, it is more layered: Goan spices meeting Portuguese preservation methods, local meats and fish marrying European marinades, rice and coconut blending with vinegar, olive oil, and chillies and ancient toddy-based cooking merging with convent-style desserts.</p>.<p>Before the tongue-twisters could kill my appetite, Chef Soares simplified all of that: almondegas is vegetable cutlet, rissois are mushroom-filled pastries, and sopa is green pea soup. </p>.<p><strong>Balance of flavours</strong></p>.<p>Luso-Goan food has a distinct sweet-spicy-sour balance that is unlike any other Indian cuisine with key ingredients being vinegar (especially toddy vinegar), Kashmiri chillies for colour and flavour, coconut milk and oil, pork (a major protein introduced into Goan cuisine), garlic, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, cumin, peppercorns, bay leaf, tamarind, and kokum. "Because the Portuguese ruled across the world, Goa’s cuisine indirectly and subtly absorbed elements from Brazil, Mozambique, Macau, Madeira and the Azores,” added Soares who also teaches culinary art in Goa University. </p>.<p>In her book, Luso Goan Culinary Cookbook, Myra Silveira has included 60 original recipes of her father Jose Vasco Silveira who runs the Horseshoe Bar & Restaurant in Panaji (Goa). When the Portuguese arrived in Goa in the early 1500s, they brought with them many culinary practices but none were as life-changing as the art of curing meat in salt, spice, and smoke. In Portugal, chouriço was made with wine, paprika, garlic, and salt. But in tropical Goa, the climate was brutal: hot and humid. Imported sausages spoiled within days and traditional European curing failed. To make the Portuguese chouriço survive tropical heat, Goans replaced European ingredients with local genius: red wine with toddy vinegar, paprika with fiery Goan red chillies, mild garlic with Indian garlic, gentle smoke with strong wood-fire drying. They hand-cut pork, soaked it in tangy vinegar, salt, and a deep red spice paste, and then stuffed the mixture into casings and hung them to dry in the smoky rafters of Goan homes, said Silveira who names Vindaloo as the dish that is exclusive to Luso-Goan cuisine. </p>.<p>Even today, Luso-Goan cuisine is preserved lovingly in family kitchens, festive tables, and heritage restaurants. So, next time you are in Goa, take an afternoon out to try authentic Luso-Goan dishes like Pork Vindaloo, Bebinca, Goan sausages, Goan Feijoada. </p>.<p><strong>Birth of Bebinca </strong></p>.<p>Story has it that in the 17th century, nuns in convents used egg whites to starch their habits. That surplus egg yolk was used by Sister Bebiana, a nun at the Convent de Santa in Old Goa to create Bebinca, the sticky 7-16 layered dessert that is made with egg yolks, flour, coconut milk, sugar, ghee and a dash of nutmeg powder. </p>.<p><strong>What’s in a name? </strong></p>.<p>•Cafreal: Comes from the Portuguese term Cafre, an old designation for the inhabitants of a region of Southern Africa; stems from the Arabic word kafir (infidel) because most of the inhabitants of the region were non-Muslims<br>•Xacuti: From the Portuguese term Chacuti (meaning spicy curry)<br>•Sorpotel: From the Portuguese term Sarapatel which translates into confusion or mishmash<br>•Rissois (singular rissol): Portuguese word that borrows from the French word rissole that stems from Latin term russeolus, which means ‘reddish’<br>•Recheado: Portuguese word that means stuffed or filled<br>•Balchao: Named after belachan/balichao, Malay/Chinese words for shrimp paste. One theory states the word evolved from the Portuguese word for whale (baleia)<br>•Vindaloo: Probably from Portuguese vin d'alho (wine and garlic) <br>•Serradura: Portuguese word for sawdust (from the crushed biscuit that serves as the base of the dessert)</p>
<p>“Do you want Almondegas de Hottalica? Rissois de Cogumelos? Or, Sopa de Ervilhas com Pro de Alho?” In North Goa’s Ourém, a tony bar and restaurant famed for its Luso-Goan cuisine, Chef Ines Soares was naming dishes that qualified more as tongue-twister than a scrumptious afternoon slurp. I lent an ear to the difficult pronunciation but before I could decode the names, my curiosity hinged on Luso-Goan? What’s Luso-Goan? Simply put, isn’t it Portuguese-Goan? </p>.<p>Well, it surely is. Luso, the dictionary enlightened me, was a prefix that literally means "related to Portugal or the Portuguese", and stems from Lusitania, the ancient Roman province that once covered much of modern Portugal. So, Luso-Goan (Portuguese-Goan) cuisine is shaped by Portuguese flavours, ingredients, and cooking techniques brought during 450 years of Portuguese rule (1510–1961). In the kitchen, it is more layered: Goan spices meeting Portuguese preservation methods, local meats and fish marrying European marinades, rice and coconut blending with vinegar, olive oil, and chillies and ancient toddy-based cooking merging with convent-style desserts.</p>.<p>Before the tongue-twisters could kill my appetite, Chef Soares simplified all of that: almondegas is vegetable cutlet, rissois are mushroom-filled pastries, and sopa is green pea soup. </p>.<p><strong>Balance of flavours</strong></p>.<p>Luso-Goan food has a distinct sweet-spicy-sour balance that is unlike any other Indian cuisine with key ingredients being vinegar (especially toddy vinegar), Kashmiri chillies for colour and flavour, coconut milk and oil, pork (a major protein introduced into Goan cuisine), garlic, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, cumin, peppercorns, bay leaf, tamarind, and kokum. "Because the Portuguese ruled across the world, Goa’s cuisine indirectly and subtly absorbed elements from Brazil, Mozambique, Macau, Madeira and the Azores,” added Soares who also teaches culinary art in Goa University. </p>.<p>In her book, Luso Goan Culinary Cookbook, Myra Silveira has included 60 original recipes of her father Jose Vasco Silveira who runs the Horseshoe Bar & Restaurant in Panaji (Goa). When the Portuguese arrived in Goa in the early 1500s, they brought with them many culinary practices but none were as life-changing as the art of curing meat in salt, spice, and smoke. In Portugal, chouriço was made with wine, paprika, garlic, and salt. But in tropical Goa, the climate was brutal: hot and humid. Imported sausages spoiled within days and traditional European curing failed. To make the Portuguese chouriço survive tropical heat, Goans replaced European ingredients with local genius: red wine with toddy vinegar, paprika with fiery Goan red chillies, mild garlic with Indian garlic, gentle smoke with strong wood-fire drying. They hand-cut pork, soaked it in tangy vinegar, salt, and a deep red spice paste, and then stuffed the mixture into casings and hung them to dry in the smoky rafters of Goan homes, said Silveira who names Vindaloo as the dish that is exclusive to Luso-Goan cuisine. </p>.<p>Even today, Luso-Goan cuisine is preserved lovingly in family kitchens, festive tables, and heritage restaurants. So, next time you are in Goa, take an afternoon out to try authentic Luso-Goan dishes like Pork Vindaloo, Bebinca, Goan sausages, Goan Feijoada. </p>.<p><strong>Birth of Bebinca </strong></p>.<p>Story has it that in the 17th century, nuns in convents used egg whites to starch their habits. That surplus egg yolk was used by Sister Bebiana, a nun at the Convent de Santa in Old Goa to create Bebinca, the sticky 7-16 layered dessert that is made with egg yolks, flour, coconut milk, sugar, ghee and a dash of nutmeg powder. </p>.<p><strong>What’s in a name? </strong></p>.<p>•Cafreal: Comes from the Portuguese term Cafre, an old designation for the inhabitants of a region of Southern Africa; stems from the Arabic word kafir (infidel) because most of the inhabitants of the region were non-Muslims<br>•Xacuti: From the Portuguese term Chacuti (meaning spicy curry)<br>•Sorpotel: From the Portuguese term Sarapatel which translates into confusion or mishmash<br>•Rissois (singular rissol): Portuguese word that borrows from the French word rissole that stems from Latin term russeolus, which means ‘reddish’<br>•Recheado: Portuguese word that means stuffed or filled<br>•Balchao: Named after belachan/balichao, Malay/Chinese words for shrimp paste. One theory states the word evolved from the Portuguese word for whale (baleia)<br>•Vindaloo: Probably from Portuguese vin d'alho (wine and garlic) <br>•Serradura: Portuguese word for sawdust (from the crushed biscuit that serves as the base of the dessert)</p>