MOST ACTION AT SAMBA SQUARE! Quintessential Carnaval ambience ruled here with liquor, food, company and a razzamatazz spirit in the air to celebrate and toast… for the lean season of Lent follows! Niz Goenkars and tourists flocked here; the Red & Black Dance took place here on March 1, 2022 (last day of Carnaval).

Eating is Fun / Eating is Yuck! – A variety food column

CARNAVAL was some kind of jamboree this year with all manner of things to buy and all manner of things to eat post-King Momo’s parade in capital city Panaji. Never have I seen such an explosion of food to feed the senses and palate – there was usual standard Goan Catholic as well as Goan Hindu zitt-curry, a razzmatazz of confectionaries with more and more bakers with magical fingers catering to the sweet tooth of Goa. There were Italian foodpreneurs, Bengali foodpreneurs and Japanese foodpreneurs.
Foodpreneurs being the new catchword to presumably describe those who make, present and serve food…er… a cut above the rest of the usual familiar food we see everywhere. Downmarket or upmarket, everything is commercial of course! Most foodpreneurs are young, savvy, use their imagination to present their specialities of passion, be it chocolates, wines, drinks, cookies or pickles – pickles are going upmarket seriously with more and more young pickle entrepreneurs packing traditional pickles vegetarian and non-vegetarian in pretty little round or square glass jars. One thing about these new lot of foodpreneurs, they’re more eco-conscious in their packing! I always say health-conscience and eco-conscience must go together, and not one or the other.
THIS year’s Carnaval hotspots revolved around three venues. There was Samba Square where the main action was. Then there were the Verna-based FIERCE Kitchens people led by the dynamic Abhishek Singh (incubation manager of Goa Institute of Management) who facilitated something like 40 or 50 “foodpreneurs” who serve their food specialities beneath a pretty line-up of silken white square tents down the Campal promenade (opp old GMC) – this was a much nicer al fresco food court…it quite took my breath away and first three days of the Carnaval at least I trotted out there. The first day I went too early.

Finally, the third Carnaval was next to the rigged-up Samba Square street flush next to the Jardin Garcia de Orta (or Municipal gardens) where the enterprising Tarang pair of Sweta Chari and Mansi Govekar had organized the Panjim Carnaval Market – here was a mixed medley of things to revel in, buy, eat, drink, time pass beneath the trees with the kids running in and out of these colourful cute mini-tents!
SAMBA Square was where the elite food stalls of the big guys in food and drinks were set up. This was the main dancing venue with the band belting out tempting songs for folk to not just imbibe the cocktails and mocktails but also to dance away any residual corona virus blues. First and fourth night here were jam-packed affairs and yes the guys paid Rs100 ticket for entry, for the girls it was free. Like I said before here was the traditional explosion of food at the 4-day Carnaval organized by the CCP and Goa Tourism & Sponsors this year.

One just had to choose where one wanted to spend more time for experiencing the Carnaval. I think I spent more time at the Campal foodpreneurs food court and then at the Jardin Garcia da Orta lively market. At the first place I said hello to some of the older foodpreneurs like Shobha Kamat with her Ranchikud which has been offering Goan food for many years now to Goans, she also supply meals around Panaji if you are interested.
At Dil Se Sushi the painstaking Siddharth Shrestha (sushi chef) was finely slicing some fat fish to go into his sushi, but by the time I discovered him, I’d already stuffed myself with alu chop and kasundi paneer-laced rice at my friend Ajanta Burman’s The Bengali Lady, she does authentic Bengali food for Bengali food lovers and is very meticulous.
If you don’t want to do pickles at home you have quite a choice of women foodpreneurs marketing pickles! Heard of Priyanka Gupta of Oomah “healthy, homemade fresh pickles” – she has without oil pickles, low oil pickles, oil based pickles…her chatpata khajur kaju pickle (Rs175 per 200g), amla chutney (Rs130) and Jackfruit pickle (Rs140) caught my eye but I didn’t buy, I am putting on too much weight on oil and salt! Then there’s Bhawna Sood Kumar whose Mandhadan Creations also feature a wide arrange of usual and unusual pickles in square bottles. Honestly, these days one may choose between sabzi or pickle to grab a quick bite, at one time I used to make yummylicious cheddar/adam/feta cheese and pickle sandwiches. No longer for the friend I used to enjoy them with has gone with the wind.
This is not to say a little bit of pickle can’t liven up anything. Be intelligent when selecting your pickles. Oil-less and low salt pickles are best if you can get them, but then there is also bharwa red chilli pickle of Rajasthan, a little bit of which goes a long way stirred into a hot ghee-laced Guju tur dal kichadi.

Other names to note here are Laila’s Kitchen for Hyderabadi biryani and cuisine (check out Laila Fathima); the itsy bitsy chocolates of Dorothy of DOTS from Calangute are tempting…and Revati Sanzagiri does some great organically sourced Goan masala, pickles and homemade cuisine.
HEY, there’s a new “sparkling alcoholic beverage” in the market called Fruzzante claiming to be “lighter than beer, tastier than wine” out in the market and I rather like it – it comes in several fruit variants like pineapple, star fruit, mango, strawberry, chikoo, my favourite is pineapple. Don’t go imagining there’s real fruit in these beverages though, okay. But they’re nice to drink occasionally on the rocks when read wine is out of reach. Check Fruzzante out! Mercifully, these upper crust beverages are not going into plastic bottles yet. I will never, never drink out of a plastic bottle, you don’t either please.
I CAN’T say I paid too much attention to King Momo this Carnaval and even missed his parade. Most everyone’s mind is on what’s happening in Ukraine and how it will impact the people of Ukraine, of Europe and even us out here in South Asia. By now any sensible civilization should have outgrown such toxic warfare, but I’m increasingly beginning to believe that out in the countries of the West they have less respect for life — than us in the countries of the East, South Asia, South East Asia and Far East! Decide for yourself. And do whatever little or a lot you can do save the wellbeing of Mother Earth — on whose continuing generosity we continue to breath, drink water and eat our food to stay alive.
At the Carnaval bazaar out at the Jardin de Orta adults and children alike had the craziest time. Here was mixed medley of books, games, crazy attire and jewelry and again interesting moments with more foodpreneurs and drink-preneurs too.