Vogue India with Cyrus Todiwala at #WaterfrontGoa

Rice being the staple food in this tiny coastal state, breads are also a big part of the Goan cuisine. The markets in Goan are usually littered with a variety of great fresh produce, like seafood, meats, vegetables and salts. But along with these, you’ll also spot a variety of breads, such as katre, kakonn, pokshe and poee—and the last one is getting increasingly popular outside the state as well.

As a concept, bread was introduced to Goa by the Portuguese who had colonised this part of the country. “They hit the idea of using toddy (palm wine) to help leaven dough. This allowed them to travel farther and provided a balanced diet for sailors who carried this bread along,” says UK MasterChef Cyrus Todiwala, who heads The River Restaurant at Acron Waterfront Resort in Goa, as well as East London’s famous Café Spice Namasté.

Beyond xacuti and sorpotel—dotted with meaty crumbs and served with fluffy rice is seldom thought of when one thinks about Goan cuisine. But that is not all that this cuisine has to offer. It also allots an interesting range of meatless curries and gravies using underdog vegetables such as drumstick, raw jackfruit and karanda. These may not appear on your typical shack meal but are very much a part of this coastal cuisine. The same can be said about Indian breads from this state—they aren’t represented enough on menus of restaurants serving Indian cuisine in India and aboard.

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