Goan cuisine

Goan cuisine consists of some small unique varieties of Goa, which was influenced by the Portuguese to a great extent.

Coconut milk is an important ingredient of the Goan cuisine, and is used in many delicacies.

Seafood

Being a coastal city, the cuisine is predominantly seafood based, the staple food of Goans is rice and fish.

Kingfish is the most common delicacy, others include pomfret, doumer, shark, tuna and mackerel. Among the shellfish are crabs, prawns, tiger prawns and lobster. Others include squid and mussels.

The Hindu food of Goa is not influenced by the Portuguese cuisine, but the Christian food has been influenced by the Portuguese, and include beef and pork dishes like sorportel and vindaloo.

Vindaloo

Vindaloo, roughly translated from Portuguese as "wine, vinegar and garlic" and also called Vindalho or Vindallo, is a popular Indian dish. It was first brought to Goa by the Portuguese and became a Goan meal often served during special occasions. Historically this was a pork dish cooked with plenty of red wine and garlic, but it later received the Goan treatment of adding plentiful amounts of spice and chili. Restaurants often serve this dish with chicken or lamb sometimes mixed with potatoes. Traditional vindaloos do not include potatoes, the discrepancy arising because the word "aloo" means "potato" in Hindi.

The dish has gained popularity in Britain and New Zealand, where it is almost universally featured on Indian restaurant menus and is known as one of the hotter curries available.

However, it is not known in many parts of India and is famous only among those people who visit Goa.

Trivia

* The popularity of the dish inspired the song Vindaloo, The unofficial anthem of the England football team for the 1998 FIFA World Cup.
* Vindaloo is a favorite food of Dave Lister, the lead character of the popular BBC television series Red Dwarf.
* Punk rock pioneers the Ramones opened their 1978 album Road to Ruin with the lines, "Hanging out on Second Avenue/ Eating chicken vindaloo ..."
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