Goa diaries -- Away from the beaten path

A 500 year old church in Serrao

To what lengths would you go to search for the perfect Chicken Cafreal. For motorcycle enthusiast, founder of biking group Indus Rider and writer, Arvind Prabhakar, it took him eight months across the sleepy islands of Goa such as Serrao, Vaxim and faraway from the tourist hordes to find the one.

Bardles

And in yet another vindication of the foodie's law -- the look of a place is inversely proportional to the yumminess of its food --- Bradles Bar and Restaurant ticked all the boxes in style. The fish melted in the mouth, the pork pulao had heavy shades of Portuguese daubed over it and the beef roast was simply phenomenal. The squid and mussels were simply divine. In other words a noisy bunch of 8 was reduced to a silent mass of munching jaws and grunts for nearly an hour. While Goan cuisine is heavily influenced by the Portuguese -- they only left in 1961 -- over recent years, it has been subjected to an assault of other cuisines, especially from North India where a substantial chunk of the tourists come from. Not to mention the European tourists who prefer their tandoori chicken (the redder the better) over the delicately flavored Goan cuisine. The other end of this culinary rainbow is the typical sandwiches, pasta beach shack fare whose quality is variable at best. For authentic Goan cuisine, you have to get either very lucky or know people who are interested in keeping its history intact. The sad part is that many of these hidden eating houses are morphing into drinking holes. For one, the economics is cheaper, as drinks cost a fraction of the meals that has to be cooked and secondly, demand for such authentic cuisine, especially in restaurants drops sharply as you get into interior Goa. (this place is a good one hour inland over a few ferry rides from the Baghas and the Calangutes) A friend was narrating a story on a great restaurant which he used to frequent during his internship days in

college had started serving alcohol when he took his wife there after a few years. "I cried," he said when the owner told him that they have stopped serving food for a while.  Even at Bardles, we were the only folks having lunch with the rest of the tables occupied by silent drinkers. These places need to be preserved for they are important reminders of the past. Arvind tells us that he usually brings riders to this place for meals and calls in advance so that the owner, Mr Francis can make the necessary preparations. Location: (on Divar island and a stone's throw away from Devaayaa Spa) More power to him and his kind! And what about the Chicken Cafreal. Lip-smacking fare, though at the risk of sounding slightly heretical, I thought it was a close second.

Goa to Bangalore

19th September 2009
Day 1 - Goa to Gokarna

On the road to Gokarna

After a short flight to Goa from Mumbai during which I tried to watch for the umpteenth time an  interesting Hindi movie called 99 (Soha Ali Khan, Cyrus Broacha, Kunal Khemu)  unsuccessfully, thanks to the irritating interruptions by a masculine voice belonging to air hostess, we land at Dabolim airport where being a long weekend, it was crawling with out of towners.

In the land of sun and shine, everybody is here to have a good time and the scenes outside the airport are reminiscent of peak rush hour traffic in Bombay. After 20-25 mins of jostling and being jostled we are on our way to the famous Om beach at Gokarna in northern karnataka and a distance of 160 kms from Goa.

Om Beach

Much of the road passes through the beautiful countryside including Karwar, though a lot of the areas near Karwar has been cordoned off by the navy. TIP: If you are planning to hire a car from Goa to Gokarna, please hire a taxi at Gokarna and ask him to pick you up at the airport rather than hiring a cab at Goa as taxis can be quiet outrageously priced.

After a quick pitstop for lunch somewhere on the highway between Goa and Gokarna where we devoured on Goan surmai fish curry, rice and buckets of King beer where we almost changed our mind to stay back in Goa, we were on our way.

Gokarna Town

Om beach is so called because of the Om shape of the beach and is a wonderful beach town and much less crowded and as a result much less commercialised than its Goan counterparts . Apart from 4-5 shacks which will rustle up everything from dal rice to pizzas and pastas, and a couple of places catering to the "gora" crowd, the beach is quite clean and rocky in places. The main town is a few kms away from the beach and is dotted with temples and quite small with restaurants and ancillary tourist services such as guesthouses, car services being the main business.

Despite it being a weekend, we found a place a bit away from the teeming masses quite easily. Slightly rustic but in an almost jungle-like setting we were too kicked about the first day of our trip which will take us across some of the most beautiful temples in the southern state of Karnataka over the next few days.

A picturesque sunset, a long languid dinner with our close friends and listening to the sound of the waves calling out to us was enough to knock us out after what had been a long day on the road. Tomorrow we will begin our temple crusades. 

Goa to Bangalore

20th September 2009

Day 2 - Om Beach

Om beach (in shape of the Hindu symbol) is situated 6 kilometers from Gokarna (literally: cow’s ears), a temple town, which in turn is 60 kilometers from Karwar in Northern Karnataka on NH- 17. The most  famous of the four beaches which straddles Gokarn and has some creative names such as Half Moon (because it is so shaped), Paradise and Kudle Beach and can be reached easily by trekking across some rocky hills. 

The length of the beach itself is not very big with about 1 – 1.2 kilometers end to end and sloping towards the sea. Most visitors here are locals from the state and on weekdays the largely empty beach reminds one of Goa in its more idyllic days. Foreigners too flock the beach in droves and their popularity can be gauged from the pastas, sizzlers dished up at the 10-15 odd cafes (in peak season) along the beach front. If you like your tipple though, please carry it from Gokarn which has a couple of bars or you will have to make do with some not so chilled beer the cafes or a auto ride (150 rupees one way, half hour) to the town before sundown. Namaste Café (Raju – 9880459559), by its dint of being featured in the Lonely Planet, is the most buzzing with activity and you literally fall into it as you step into the rocky beach.

 A bit too teeming with boisterous drunken parties to our taste, quieter ones can be found further down the beach. A better one which we liked was Ganesh café near the far end of the beach and astride Nirvana where visitors can get rooms for 400 rupees a night (ask for the ones with the porch and not with rooms as they are relatively spider free). William at the Ganesh café is extremely friendly and, the service a bit slow normally, is well worth the wait.  Carry a couple of torches, some old bedsheets and you have all the necessary ingredients for an awesome picnic on the beach in pitch darkness.