Shravan thali veg meals are in demand every monsoon and especially the Saraswat thali veg meal which promises to make fasting a feast…check out Sapna Sardessai’s ‘Kokum Curry’ at Panjim. It offers a different menu every week full of the traditional recipes of the Saraswat community in Goa. A most pleasurable experience for the discerning palate! The thali meal depictions above are from (l) Aug 5-11 and (r) Aug 12-18, respectively

By Tara Narayan

IF there’s a place I can go and eat every day it’s at Sapna Sardesai’s Kokum Curry in capital city Panaji! These days in the month of Shravan when most GSB Hindu families turn vegetarian, it is here you may find an amazing variety of piece de resistance Saraswat kitchen favorites. It’s a bit too much of a generous thali meal deal for Rs420 but who’s complaining! Not me although I may grumble why two sweet dishes when one is enough to die for or live for?
Of course both sweet offerings are perfectly agreeable to the discerning palate and the Saraswat sweets are in a class of their own (seeing how Goan Hindus and Goan Catholic have quite a repertoire of sweets native, European and fusion).
The Shravan Kokum Curry menu changes weekly and at the moment I’m trying to make up my mind about which Shravan thali menu I live for the most. Perhaps the one served from August 12 to 18 which featured… “vaalichi bhaaji, khathkhatem, ambe dal, neerpansachyo foddi/kappa, voddiachi kismoor, anasaachi karamm, ambaddeachi uddamethi, xeet, harvya mirsangechi kadi, fried papad, chapati, limache lonche, buknni, patoli, mannganne.” The week before that from August 5 to 11 it was “paalechi bhaaji, chanyache tonaak, kaarathyacho kunvoll, kothmir wadis, papadachi kismoor, gaazrachi koshimbir, voddiacho ros, xeet, khutti kadi, fried papad, chapatti, flowererache lonche, buknni, muttlli, moogache kann’a” — chapatti, xeet, papad are standard daily fare, xeet for white rice and papad…is papad, I like it toasted instead of fried (the hubby likes it fried instead of toasted).
I won’t tell you what’s coming up from Aug 19 to 25 and from Aug 26 to Sept 1, and Sept 2 & 3, final days of Shravan-ka-mahina. You may go find out for yourself and revel in some of these priceless heritage recipes of Saraswat cuisine yourself. Most of the recipes are lovingly crafted and presented and some were a first time for me, like the softly sumptuous ivory rice dumpling called “muttlli” …perfect ooze of warm coconut and jaggery “choon”in the mouth. Enticing, for a moment I wondered if I could ask for another one more to be happier than happy! Extras are all extra chargeable for this is a limited thali meal deal. That day I thought I was being spoilt for the second sweet of “moogache kann’a” was begging to be relished too. See what I mean? No?
Plus, there are the appetizers or tongue touchers (amuse-bouche in French or whatever you want to call it, not quite hors d’euvre) – say this tantalizing powdery red “bhookni,” creamy yellow “limbache lonche” and “ambe dal” packed cutely in a jackfruit leaf cone and placed atop pristine white hot fragrant rice…no toop or desi ghee, why not! But I’m not complaining okay, this is a platter meal placed on a banana leaf and fine-tuned with caring love and respect for food as it should be served and eaten preferably with fingers, take your time.
I’d say Kokum Curry offers the most designer and most health-conscious Shravan thali meal deal in town, worth every bit of it for the price even if I’m carping why two sweets! Is it gross to eat like this every day? But then nobody is eating like this every day, okay. Relax, only come Shravan-ka-mahina when the heart is full of all kinds of wistful longings which may or not be assuaged only with food, the best! Food is love, or it can be hate as cold as money. Make what you will of this.

TO continue with the food at Kokum Curry like I said before I could go climb the broad stony staircase just to eat here day after day, and yes, I would lose weight for I’d be eating nothing else till the next day lunch-time. Shravan mahina is for losing weight without suffering too much amongst other things and never mind that the Saraswat dishes almost entirely feature the ambrosial fruit of the coconut, Konkan coast cuisine feature coconut mostly, it’s a coconut-based cuisine (better than dairy I dare say)…remember the coconut tree is the kalpavriksha or wish-fulfillment tree of Hinduism, some religious sentiment says perceive the coconut is a symbol of your human ego, you may want to sacrifice yours for some cause, etcetera, to woo the Hindu pantheon of gods and goddesses.
But now that I’ve eaten at Kokan Curry a couple of times I can tell you here’s the best of Saraswat food here, all meals are full of delicate or stronger flavors to savor – my favorites are here such as “khatkhatem”(monsoon time veggie medley curry), “mooga gatti”(cannot describe), “ambaddeachi uddamethi” (featuring sour hogplums) or better still the tangiest pineapple sasav…pure dal in which the scent of the tirphal berry can give a high of pleasure!
Yes, a bit of a too much but these days by the time it is noon time and hunger pangs catch up with me, I want to run away from life and climb the broad stony stairway to the first floor, and enjoy a meal at Kokum Curry – only Shravan thali meal, it comes with oodles of equal amounts of substance and style. I don’t much care for the plastic light lamp though, I just shift it out of sight. It’s not the same as an oil diya evocation with incense sticks burning at a Lord Ganesh or goddess Saraswati altar somewhere in the room….
But this is to say, where to go for a Saraswat thali meal this Shravan? Kokum Curry is located next to Hindu Pharmacy, overlooking the Jardim Garcia de Orta Municipal Garden in the heart of down-town Panjim. Go early for there’re only a few window seats overlooking the garden. Sapna Sardessai’s heritage eatery interiors are neatly done up and inviting. They only do GSB or Gaud Saraswat Brahmin cuisine recipes and one look at the menus and one is struck by the choices in both non-vegetarian and vegetarian offerings – some fascinating combo meals to savor here if you wish, although these day it’s Shravan time’s pure vegetarian Saraswat meal most folk come looking for if they’re fasting, or even not fasting.
LIKE I said before I want to treat myself to a Shravan thali every day, as long as Shravan-ka-mahina is here although it’s August now and the rain is singing farewell notes and will soon be gone. At Kokum Curry one gets a pretty good idea of the prized Sarawat recipes of old which Sapna Sardessai takes pains to recreate faithfully. Familiar recipes may vary though, she educated me one time, “the same recipe will taste different in south Goa, the Saraswat women cook the same dishes differently, say if you go further down to Karwar it will taste different. Don’t expect the same khatkhate or mooga ghati everywhere!”
For example the day I was at Kokum Curry their khatkhate had chunks of turai (ridge gourd) swirling in the curry, a more adventurous way to do it instead of just tuber veggies), or so I think! Which reminds me I must get a few recipes from the lively Sapna Sardessai although one of her Man Friday namely Hendricks shared that I may find the Goan Saraswat recipes they do in the cookbook “Ishtann” by Padma Mahale (translated from the original Konkani by Sapna Sardessai who also has a publishing house). It’s a soft cover cookbook worth investing in if you’re seriously interested in doing Goan Saraswat meals, the cookbook’s the best in its simplicity of format and price (Rs299). I’ve got a copy and now I don’t know if I will cook, only the “ambe dal” maybe to go with my ambemor rice one of these days when Shravan time is over!