Douglas M

Hi Remy,

Ignoring the moral and cultural issues for the moment. When you are in panjim just try the veggie restaurants as an indian and culinary experience, we used to order a selection of dishes, some rice and nan and sample a bit of each dish . You might be smitten.

No need to eat it off a banana leaf with your right hand either , they provide cutlery and plates.

regards
douglas

Remy-Ireland

Heres another great site with some Goan recipes as well.
Also recipes are in easy print format.

http://www.syvum.com/recipes/ivrindex.html

Remy

Remy-Ireland

Will definately try them in December, can you remember any restaurants in particular or are they sort of scattered about Panjim?

Remy

Douglas M

Hi Remy,

We mostly used one spelt something like Shiv Sagar, but there are many, just look for the sign "vegetarian". Any taxi driver should know them, few FNs use them but locals and visiting indians obviously do.

In addition to food from all over india, from memory you can get pizza and ice cream and soft drinks for the kids in Shiv Sagar too.

regards
douglas

emsirrah

The best veggie - by far - in Panjim - is the newly refurbished Fidalgo Hotel on 18 June Road (the main one where Bombay Bazaar shop is but a little further down the road on the opposite side) Go inside to the Thali Restaurant (as opposed to the veggie one on the street) and the food in there is fantastic. 125rps for the complete meal. All you can eat and they give you sweet lime, buttermilk and water. The surroundings are beautiful, the service attentive and we couldn't believe the price for such a place.
The Shiv Saga has gone down hill - nowhere near as good as it used to be as has the Navtara. The Kamat - near the big church in Panjim is ok - their veggie burgers are very good.
The Navtara in Mapusa is another thing - alot better than the one in Panjim and we eat there twice a week during the season. Try the Masala Dosa or Channa Masala - I can taste them now
Everybody talks about the Plantain Leaf in Calangute as being good - IMO the worst in Calangute - not saying more other than how can spinach make you ill for nearlly a week!!!

birdynumnum

Hi Tony

I'm another vegan/veggie type, also a chef........
Meditteranean foods/ Middle Eastern would be a nice change for them......you could do a lovely middle eastern style meze meal - falafels (home made, have a top recipe) plus all sorts of yummy stuff - dips, beans w/ tomato sauce, fattoush salad etc etc
Also, dead easy r pumpkin, onion and cinnamon filos w/ roasted pepper & basil sauce

Always a hit are walnut & herb stuffed mushrooms - dead easy too

Mushrooms - destalked
Walnuts - say 1 - 2 cupfuls/ 300gm
Wholemal bread - processed into breadcrumbs
2-3 cloves garlic
Juice & zest 1 - lemons
Lots of finely chopped mint & flat leaf parsley
Maldon salt and freshly ground pepper
Xtra virgin olive oil

Whizz most the nuts, mix w/ breadcrumbs, garlic, lemon juice. Add zest to taste, add herbs (use stalks too of parsley if chopped fine enough)
Add s & p, drizzle of o/oil. Add last of the nuts, crushed.
The mix should hold together when you squeeze it & be moist.
Destalk mushrooms. Make stuffing mixture into a ball and stuff into mushroom, being generous, make sure its compacted so holds together.
Drizzle w/ a little more oilve oil, only a tad, bake for 15- 20 mins in oven

Served w/ a baby leaf, olive, fennel salad w/ nice dressing - yummy

Have a head full of recipes if you want any

Happy cooking

Poster above mentioned masala dosai - yum yum yum

Douglas M

Hi Birdynumnum and Emsirrah,

Veggies rock!

Nice of you to update my knowledge and hopefully together we may persuade others to try authentic Indian food.

I wasnt born a veggie and went through the "if youre not eating bloody meat your not a strong man" thing. Hopefully that idea no longer prevails.

For those still of that ilk, douglas says try getting in the ring with a thai boxer who are buddhists and essentially vegetarians.

Regards to all

douglas

Remy-Ireland

Thanks Douglas,

Will right the name down in my 'book of Goan tips' and give it a rattle.

Kind Regards,
Remy

emsirrah

Remy - did you miss my restaurant recommendation above

Remy-Ireland

Hi emsirrah and welcome,

Great inside info and updates.
The Fidalgo sounds the biz.......

I feel a bit of a traitor at the moment as the wife has just handed me a bacon butty.

Regards,
Remy

TDK

Thanks Douglas for jogging my memory with the name (Shiv Sagar) of the S.Indian restaurant i also recommended on another topic (great palak masala dosas etc and juices)!

Thanks also to Emsirrah for all your very welcome veggie restaurant tips in Panaji which i hope to try out next time. I went to The Plantain Leaf restaurant once & thought was ok but not as authentic S.Indian as i'd hoped.The best S.Indian food i ever had was served on banana leaves on a mat on the floor and hardly spicy so you could actually taste the delicious flavours but that was at Sri Ramana Maharishi's ashram at the foot of the sacred mountain Arunachala in Tiruvannamalai, T.N. (couldn't ask for a better setting either)!!

And thanks also to Birdynumnum for sharing your vegan recipe with us (i'm also vegan/avoid eating anything with a face). I also love M.Eastern food and Japanese (my fave so if you know any more recipes)... and Thai.
All the best - TDK

Remy-Ireland

Hi Emsirrah,

Sorry i did miss it and then saw it so i think our posts crossed.
Excellant info and i look forward to trying out your recommendations in December.

Thanks Again and Welcome Aboard,

Kind Regards,
Remy

emsirrah

Enjoy your bacon butty and don't get it all over the keyboard

TDK

Forgot to mention - 2 of my fave veggie restaurants in Goa:

'Bean me Up' (near Vagator petrol pump) & 'Blue Tao' in Anjuna (both manage to cunjure up a good variety of healthy but delicious and inventive veggie & vegan food.

emsirrah

My favourite veggie and vegan place is in my flat!!!
I will feed you once when you are in Goa - let us know when you are in the Candolim area and you are welcome to come for lunch as long as you bring the OH's beer.