Offering of a nostalgic kind at newly discovered Moonshot Lounge at heritage Latin quarters Fontainhas, that is Vineeta Gothaskar before her very innovative savoury handvo muffin, served with tangy mint chutney! The menu also features other tempting bites along with Maharashtra’s Misal Pav… check out Moonshot one of these days and walk around Fontainhas for a happy experience.
IT is time for me to take a fresh look at the status of my arteries and heart so I went off to get a blood test done at my favorite pathologist’s lab which is Dr Fonseca’s Pathology Laboratory in the heart of charming heritage district Fontainhas – the problem once I go to Fontainhas I don’t want to come back to the rest of Panaji mainstream! This is the most fascinating place to go down walking into times past and not yet totally lost. After giving away some blood and chit-chatting with Dr Sushila bai about this and that and Covid-19 times naturally, she insisted I don’t let my mask slip down my nose!
Anyways, blood given and test to be collected in the evening, I decided I liked the quaint gardens full of interesting plants and homes of old attached…decided to linger and in a moment of joy discovered an eatery after my own heart! The tiny Moonshot Lounge where against the backdrop of an architecture and design studio Vineeta Gothaskar offers a billboard of agreeable snacks – and my senses intrigued by the legend of “Misal Pav” and “Savory Handavo Muffin” (the old Bombay, Guju and Continental girl in me responding to both respective respectively, or rather the play on words evoking my life and times gone by) I stepped in in search of breakfast – in Vineeta I’ve made a new friend and her missal-pav lived up to expectations, served with the Goan poie (pav I don’t care for) and I was reminded of my Bombay days when I’d get off the train going downtown to Churchgate at Dadar, cross the road and head to Panshikar’s to savor the missal redolent of fragrant boiled groundnuts and fryum crunchies, lemon juice squeeze in if desired (I always desired lemon juice even then in my 20s and 30s and 40s in Bombay and 50s, 60s, 70s in Panaji, Goa).
These days I’m feeling terribly humbly mortal and not sure about how yesterday has gone with the wind and tomorrow may never be mine (as in the great song about “sweet Jesus, show me the stairway”) …never mind all this, it’s time to liberate myself from all forms of slavery of the mind and body, heart and soul! This is to say I loved my missal-pav moment at Moonshot at Fontainhas heritage district and promised Vineeta I’m returning in the evening and on many more occasions to check out her “Savoury Handavo Muffin!”
Hey, life is full of an exciting mélange of foodie experiences good for the heart and soul if not the mind and body. But…ah well, I still dream of getting back on the straight and narrow pathways one of these days when I’ve been frightened sufficiently enough about how when death comes, it will come very secretively and stealthily — without giving me anymore chances to live my life! But do check out this Moonshot Lounge’s menu the next time you are in Fontainhas –absolutely my favorite district in Panaji, whenever I loaf around here I feel infinitely cheered up.