Out at the Mall de Goa…easy to spend a few hours here with a first-rate food court with various foodie outlets as an a key attraction, including Chef R Prasad Paul’s Pan Asian for a wide range for East Asian meals and snacks and Macedonia for steaks and Continental fare. That’s Chef Paul and son Jeruel Paul, his right hand man; the mall is spacious with good seating, well lit and open to the outdoors of the sky depending on where you go and sit!

By Tara Narayan

HEY, well sanitized and masked I spent a morning out at the food court at Porvorim’s Mall de Goa and am convinced it’s a far better place to catch up with some good eating out compared to many a restaurant with its inflated pricing! Not that prices are not up all around (I mean I paid Rs50 kg for potatoes last week and I wasn’t looking which is Rs 70 kg these deep at the humble food the onion and on the super food list these days). Do you know drinking raw potato juice is said to be a cure for many sicknesses including cancer, I learned that this week.
What was I doing at the Mall de Goa? Actually it was a sort of picnic outing with my friend Chef R Prasad Paul of Momo Mania with his son Geruel who Chef Paul tells me is a bright wiz with visual publicity designing. The last time I was at this mall friends I remember we ate at McDonald’s which hogs considerable space here. They have some enticing food outlets or stations here and I watched with amusement as a portly guy (probably an NRI tourist) struggled gingerly while carrying his order of this huge hot batura-chana to his table to eat in peace. Chef Paul has two foodie outlets here – Pan Asian Hut and Macedonia and he prides himself that they have the cleanest kitchen units (“that’s because of the years I put in five-star kitchens like the Cidade de Goa,” he explains). I may go look at his kitchen any day!
Anyway, Pan Asian Hut offers a whole host of contemporary Far East Asian treats and I was surprised to see listed some of my favorite fare such as laksa and mee goreng from Malaysia…Thai green and red curries, massaman curry with rice, phad thai, burnt garlic rice and much more…what’s Bang Bang Chicken? Chef Paul replied that’s just chicken meat or any meat hammered out thin and soft before cooking or roasting.
Okay, it was lunchtime so I said let’s eat and ordered a bowl of Ramen noodles, butter garlic fried rice, pepper garlic mushrooms, salad not smothered with heavyweight sweet dressings but just lemon juice and olive oil, salt/pepper. Portions were good enough for two to three of us to eat to be happy and Chef Paul tells me business had come down to 10% courtesy the Covid-19 months but now with the lockdowns over it’s going up again to maybe 20% or so, “Normal times we did business of Rs40,000 to Rs60,000 daily but then came Covid-19 and lockdowns and people stopped coming or eating out for establishments had to close down…” It will take a while before public confidence in eating out is restored.
It was an agreeable meal afterwards ending with some of the garma garam filter coffee (Rs40) at Namaste Chai station …some nice teas here including zafrani (Rs50) chai which I fancy sometimes for the sake of old memories of visiting Kashmir valley! It is one of my favorite mountains states along with Kinnaur and Lahaul & Spiti, not to forget Meghalaya….oh! I wish I could drop off everything and go for a dekho of the mountains one more time before saying goodbye cruel earth.
But to stay with Chef Paul’s other outlet at Mall de Goa called Macedonia, I asked how come the name’s from Greece but he’s doing continental things like pasta, pizzas and sizzlers, are sizzlers Continental? Of course chicken meat rules the roost out here although a paneer sizzler is listed (in Mumbai I remember some places do the delectably savory paneer sizzlers, better than any of the meaty kabab). He shrugged, Greece is also part of the European continent and maybe he will read up about what food from Macedonia is now that I mention it. Well, there were black olives in the salad I’d ordered! He smiled.
It’s a spacious food court which one may enjoy strolling through on a good day and when it is not crowded, really one of a kind in Goa with bowling alley and all kinds of slot machines set up opposite the food court. I noticed there was the shudh all vegetarian Annapoorna outlet here which is mostly a Maharashtrian affair…so is

Subway is here and I love their honey oat bread, they do their own breads a notice here informs one; there’s Wine Cellar if you want to do a celebration party. It turned out to be nice outing thanks to Chef Paul!
FINALLY, I bought it! What? For some time now whenever I dropped by at my favorite shopping place at the Caculo Mall Magson’s store in Panaji, I’d been eying these bottles big and small of Seonjiwon Citron Pulpy, Product of Korea. It’s marmalade, I thought, but it looked so tempting, and it is selling at a Magsons Supercentre offer price of Rs756 (per 580g bottle). I mean who buys marmalade this expensive? Have I no shame! I mean these are dire straits times for the media and how dare I splurge on such expensive marmalade…but it comes all the way from Korea.
Last week my resistance collapsed, I closed my eyes and bought this Made in Korea Citrus Pulpy marmalade. Came home and spooned it onto an Amul buttered toast and relished it on cloud number nine, No. 10 or may be No. 15…this is real honest to goodness orange marmalade to live for, like no other Indian marmalade for sure. For a while I can’t take my eyes of my bottle of Korean marmalade in the fridge now and keep dreaming up ways of eating it, some of it to do with my old memories of Mumbai that was Bombay years. Those years I was forever buying the WIT or Women’s India Trust three fruit marmalade and gooseberry jam, both superlatively good – and then I decided they were far too cloyingly sweet and gave up on them. They’re still the best jams of India though.
This Seonjiwon Korean Citrus Pulpy is also sweet but not cloyingly so and think how interesting orange marmalade can be in bread puddings, pancakes, even inside a dosa if you have to mind to make it interesting with a hint of citrusy sweetness! I have friends who think nothing of spooning marmalade on to an omlet and inside a chappati. A little bit of marmalade can really jazz up many a dish and children love marmalade as long as it is not of the bitterish grapefruit variety. Bitter sweet marmalade can be very enticing too on hot buttered toast or a light-hearted Goan poie. I’m reminding myself to hang to my Korean marmalade and not finish it in a week’s time. Damn it! This is to say go get it if you’re crazy about oranges and orange marmalade like I am.
TALKING of raw potato juice for a host of sicknesses and also cancer, I’m reminded October is to focus on how much breast cancer there is in Goa. And a friend has sent me this bit about cancer can be cured with vitamin B17. Apparently, there is vitamin B17 in raw potato juice. It’s all over the Internet and social media and that is if you have cancer in your body (and who hasn’t with old age catching up with them) then do check out treatment with B 17. Shun chemotherapy! Do you know that the chemotherapy industry is worth 70b USD and those who rely on cancer for a living far outnumber those who die of cancer?

Well, the story here is there are more and more people turning to raw juices to heal themselves from cancer be it raw carrot juice or raw potato juice. The treatment comes from a Japanese Zen monk and the remedy compiled by Khun…if you don’t like raw potato juice, sweeten it a bit with honey. Of course, see if you can get organically grown potatoes and wild unprocessed honey. But then I think potato juice can be served up in various combos with lemon juice added to make it more palatable, combine with another veggie juice if you like. These days I hear carrot juice, beetroot juice, pomegranate juice, celery juice – top juices with curative properties.
In Japan reportedly raw potato treatment receives resounding feedbacks from cancer patients and clinical trials are all praise for raw potato juice treatment. It can not only cure cancer but also all kinds of other chronic diseases to do with liver, kidneys, ulcers, heart, blood pressure and just about everything. If some chronic pain is torturing you…what have to lose? The advice is to drink the juice for a week or two and see if pain eases off…wash potatoes, remove sprouting spots if any, fine grate and squeeze juice out in a clean linen cloth. Get about 180 to 200ml raw juice and drink it an hour to half an hour before breakfast, dinner, on an empty stomach. Raw potato juice tastes good with apple juice. In two week you will see the result!
I know in Naturopathy raw potato juice is said to be excellent for alkalinizing body beautiful, as also for easing joint pain of all kind. Keep me informed here if you’re doing raw potato juice in the days to come, feedback always welcome and I will share it here. Also seeking information on who is doing organic cultivation of potato crops in Goa?