A WATER MELON AND FETA SALAD IN `SILLAGE’, SALIGAO!

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A WATER MELON AND FETA SALAD IN `SILLAGE’, SALIGAO!

THIS is just to say I’m ready to live on salads for the rest of my life but I guess this is not to be (since none of the many, many confectionary and pattisserie and cake shops in Goa even remotely think of presenting salads by way of preventive healthcare wishes)! But last week I did linger over a agreeable water melon and feta salad in a secluded small restaurant called Sillage’ while out in Saligao. Saligao has quite a few restaurants old and not so old and now sees quite a few visitors seeking a good meal, be it the zitt-koddi or fish platters at Mirabai’s or a continental menu at Sillage for the more cosmopolitan tourist’s palate. There are also other places to check out like Colours or the more rakishSecond House’ which is reportedly the most expensive place to spend an evening … but is usually petty crowded with young couples seeking a good meal as well as the charms of visual art programs (whatever that means). While passing by I’d dropped in for a dekho and didn’t stay to explore the esoteric menu which I quick glance revealed such things as “Hot Chick(en)” and “Doosra Fried Chicken”…etc…an interesting “Iced Coconut Sundae” (“black rice, coconut custard, shaved coconut water,” Rs700).
Not my cup of tea so it was back to Sillage which is a very tranquil place with excellent service. Of course I know that water melon and feta have now become a favorite salad of many (after who makes a good Waldorf salad nowadays or any other salad) and it is on many menus of upmarket restaurants, nobody thinks that the Greek fame feta cheese (if it’s really the original salty goat’s milk cottage cheese) also goes tantalizingly with such crunchy fruit as apples or juicy fruit like pineapple)…anyway, this here at Sillage was a most generous scrumptious water melon and feta salad wrapped in iceberg and other lettuce varieties. I ate it happily along with such things as softly toasted garlic bread topped with dollops of mashed potato – very imaginatively presented in dollop fashion. It was a happy evening to say the least here.
In case you don’t know Saligao is still one of Goa’s loveliest old world villages with an enclave of heritage mansions, some dating back to Portuguese era – while some of them are still well-cared for by family members in residence, as many are in a state of utter disarray…meaning mostly in sad ruins. Of course wealthy buyers from the world over have been coming over either craving for a personal fancy second home in Goa; but as many come looking for a piece of property to invest in to reap a fortune by hook or by crook. That’s where this real estate cookie crumbles.
You will be surprised how many folk nowadays like to enjoy a slow gracious holiday in a well-appointed heritage mansion which has been turned into a hotel of the very best kind (and sometimes of the very worst kind)…it’s more expensive to stay in a heritage mansion than in a 5-star hotel or resort now! Wealthy families from Delhi or elsewhere prefer to hire a heritage mansion with half-a-dozen rooms and everything else laid on where they can holiday en famille in private style. Say these are the very exclusive holidays of very exclusive folk.
Personally, I don’t think any kind of hotels should be allowed to come up in residential areas. Oftentimes, piercing bright lights and groups of noisy tourists coming and going can ruin the peace of folk who have been living around about here for generations. Call them the landed aristocracy of old and never mind if third or fourth generation down the family is down to just a few seniors hoping to cross a century – places like Saligao are like blue zone villages.

Alas, from the looks and sound of it and to the disgust of many of my friends who live here in their own grandee homes of old (some very beautifully and painstakingly restored, mind you it is hard work restoring and maintain a heritage home)…a lot of fine old world gracious living and family get-togetherness is becoming less and less if not totally for a toss. Also, too many Goans are selling off their family heritage mansions in distress sales, and no, not for a song, but for anything from Rs2.5 crore to Rs10 crore plus, plus depending on the scale of the property and estate attached to it.
Goa has seen any number of buyers who see a magnificent ruin of old while passing by and fall in love with it – seeing how it must have breathed with the life and laughter of adults and children once upon a time, but is now in rack and ruins and in legal dispute in court years on end…anyone who can clear all the legal hurdles (which are many!) you can own a grand home too, hopefully restored lovingly with sensitivity and sensibility.
Several Delhi folk have bought such old world heritage mansions and villas and they do come over and stay with family and friends on annual vacation. But also seek to buy one of Saligao’s rambling old world heritage mansions as an investment to reap the rewards of a hospitality property – yes, oftentimes restored by nincompoop architects and designers and put to large scale group tourism adventures. The less said here, the better.
In principal, I think Saligao is where the Western Ghats of Goa begin and the government should come up with better laws to stop a gross kind of exploitation going on in the name of tourism promotion — but instead of protection what we see here is entire hill slopes in danger of non-stop encroachment and right into forested lands, by all manner of seekers and mercenaries!
Someone needs to look into the encroachments going on endlessly and if you’re asking me especially the Saligao springs area where I learn Saligao’s history begins…one version says the village is named after the sal trees planted long ago but a more credible version is to do with the Saraswati river varnishing in western Indian sub-continent (Gujarat today) and from here reportedly the people migrated with one contingent arriving in Saligao and starting over a new life…the original families are gaunkars to this day and landed gentry in possession of much of the land here.
At the Salmona springs there is a stepped water tank from where two springs of water emerge from the forest, it is lovely spot for a botanical garden to be developed…but perhaps it’s too late now for any such development to protect the spring water and the hillsides around it. The water is in too much demand …until one day it dries up when the forests uphill too have dried up! Old-timers will then tell their children and grandchildren how once upon a time there was a verdant, water rich village of Saligao teeming with waterways, paddy fields, fruit trees and much more which made life worth living.
Today’s money-flush generation Z of course has nothing better than to do than to seek more and more self-destructive entertainment in the form of wine, women and song or something along those lines. Goa is being seen as promoting a sin economy courtesy a government in a hurry to monetize everything by hook or by crook! This is it if you’re asking me — Saligao is in need of rescuing with proper planning, maybe it is not yet too late given the sunlight, salt and timely laws.
On that note, an outing to Saligao is very interesting, do go spend a few days out there – there are many places to say from the fabulously restored high class heritage hotels (costing Rs35,000 plus per night) to economical hotels too. Do some Googling and you’ll get a better idea!