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IFFI HAS A ‘KHAO GALLI’ THIS YEAR!
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IFFI HAS A ‘KHAO GALLI’ THIS YEAR!

Uncategorized November 28, 2025 , by

And the Kala Academy canteen offered decent eats including Goa’s much-loved fish thali and veg thali meal…same venue there was very nice Konkan Rane’s Creamberg French vanilla ice-cream of pure milk, a new quality ice-cream in the market milk! I don’t ice-creams but the Dutch chocolate is something yummylicious.
OVER the years I have seen various kinds of foodie courtyards come and go during IFFI time, that is International Film Festival of India, 56th edition currently on till Friday, Nov 28. This year the usual rest and recreation courtyard has shifted further afield where in the evenings there was some premium pizza, confectionary and coffee and tea specials; but come lunch-time and most Indian delegates, even foreign delegates, headed to eat the Goan fish thali and wide variety of snacks at the Kala Academy canteen…breakfast time saw a quick turnout of omlet-pau or upma or uttapam, while lunch time has these fish thali meal deals featuring fish of various denomination (mackerel, lepo, chonak, etc) and a Rs150 vegetarian thali meal deal (the whole wheat flour chapatti wonderfully thin).
The snacks were the usual fryums of samosa, bread toast, onion and potato and fat stuffed “mirsang bhoje” and some more. Chaat outlets are always popular though quality suffers off and on, then to quench thirst there were these obsequious range of colorful mocktail drinks, of which I like the fresh crushed mint-lemon soda pop the most refreshing! Also very welcome were the neatly packed transparent pet plastic boxes of freshly cut fruit which includes dragon fruit! Only the lovely setting of the Kala Academy al fresco cafeteria doesn’t get cleaned up fast enough, we Indians, especially young Indians, think it is cool to leave behind a messed up table for someone else to clean up; the dustbins being too far away… but then that’s why there are fewer flies and crows! Where did they put away the dogs and cats?
THEN on IFFI third day I noticed this “khau galli” which had come up on the jazzed up pavement opposite old GMC – various Self-Help Women’s group stalls from Chimbel and some more offered a slew of sizzling Goan food, biryani, a couple of very good chaat stations, milkshares and beers. Evening times the khao galli really buzzed with delegates and public treating themselves to snacks or outright dinner out before going home to sleep.
AT the Inox venue the food court has shifted further down closer to the Maquinez Palace and here there some upper crust confectionary and pizza but tucked away next to the fancy Tataki-cum-Peoples Sabores upstairs-downstairs cafeteria set up here elaborately– offering a cold bitterish Goan ukde rice beer (0.4 alcoholic) and some kind of a limited Japanese menu. Interesting! Nearby tucked away in a small corner was this little outlet offering free sampling of Eastea range of teas and it was most agreeable…black tea, green tea, chamomile tea, etc. Most affable service here and I bought a bottle of the strong dust tea after free sampling it so much!
One could get tea and coffee at the PIB media centre gallery but the place was so dismal, few media people felt like taking a break here…and I wondered where the vintage comfy sofa which was here last year gone!
THE INOX audi cafeteria had its usual range of premium popcorn and sandwiches, but for the first time ever there was a special IFFI menu for delegates seeking a snack at lower rates. I was not surprised that those who really needed good food headed for the Kala Academy’s Bhingy’s-run cafeteria. And one upper crust delegate shared with me that he loved the Mall de Goa’s food courtyard the most, so when he went to some films here he got some clean good and exotic options here.
After all Goa this year has been like a mela or funfair, not just about viewing films to cultivate mind and body, heart and soul, with the best films of the world, but as festival director Shekhar Kapur put it — IFFI has to be a people’s festival at ground level. So this was this year’s IFFI offering more than just films, of course films international, national, regional as the main menu; but it was also about “khao, piyo, majha karo” for eight days of rest and recreation for khaas aadmi and aam aadmi alike, seeking a respite from grim or desperately boring daily routine.
I mean, see the best of films, eat the best of food and make the best of friends, what’s there not to like? C’est la vie. A stretch of Panjim’s main Campal promenade lit up like fairyland to make belief a feel and taste of a Parisian boulevard may be!

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