WHEN IT COMES TO BIRTHDAY CAKES I STILL WANT TO ORDER `BOL SANS RIVAL’…By Tara Narayan

Goa’s most elegant cake, “cake without rival”

GOA is such a sweet state (as if the rest of our Indian states are not, we are a terribly sweet, meaning oversweet to self-destruction country) – but in Goa it’s like a cake shop/patisserie or Indian sweetmeats/mithai place is opening every now and again. One is constantly stressed out trying to decide between a glorious baked confection sweet something or a mithai shop sweet something. Goa is where East meets West this side of the Konkan coast and eating choices are a real smorgasbord of plenty.
Over the years when a birthday comes round I want to have a cake and a mithai – say a bol sans rival cake (cake without rivals with Portuguese times memories enshrined in it) and say motichur ladoo …but lately I find myself veering towards a rich fruit cake or dry fruit ladoo. For an evening teatime do most folk just do a chaat evening which incorporates much loved light savory snacks like “pani puri,” “bhelpuri,” “sev batata puri,” “dahivada” is much loved and at one do I found myself sipping an irresistible “pineapple rasam vada.” I prefer to keep out the ubiquitously evil “pau-bhaji” and “vada-pau” or for that matter anything tucked in a loaf of white refined bread smothered within with lashings of fiery green and/or red garlic chutney. Samosa fryums are out unless someone is offering to make you a seasonal green peas-cum-caju cocktail samosa and at Guju marriages we have a “leeli tuver ni dal na samosa” (filling of green lentils called tuver of tur dal fame)…
Which reminds me talking of preventive health care beginning in our hospital cafeteria, before that I now find myself thinking that this must begin in the hundreds confectionary, patisserie and bakery outlets in Goa — unfailingly they’re loaded with fancy sweet breads, all manner of pastries, cakes, savory patties and indifferent croissant or other sandwiches, cloyingly chilled sweet desserts of all kind…recently, at a high-end place I made the mistake of eating a fancily named focaccia sandwich and was appalled by its miserable standard (not at all like the “this is what you will get” model displayed in the glass cabinet out here)…Rs140 too, not cheap, it was just a bit of warmed up mashed bread bun with skimpy lettuce, tomato, sliver of cheese laid out within, such a soft mess even ketch-up couldn’t redeem it, I left it behind utterly disgusted with myself for wasting money on what looked promising but absolutely failing to meet any promise. Well, that how the cookies keeps crumbling all the time for me!
Oh no, you can’t find any real decent sandwiches or salads, forget soups, or any genuinely health-conscious food in any of our Goan cake shops of whatever distinction….but most will have highly prized confectionary sugary and buttery and creamy. Nowadays it is also hard to find something I used to like but for these perfect custard eclairs one must go all the way down to Jila Bakery at Loutalim down south Goa.

Like I’ve said here before umpteen times now if Goa is the diabetes capital of India it is because Goans overindulge in carb rich breads and confectionary and rice – bread is of course is the easiest thing to make eating and life and living easy be it morning, noon or night! Any wonder Goans are steeped in insulin resistance and diabetes and collapse of nervous system woes by the time they touch their 50s? From diabetes to cancer is a short hop, skip and jump.
INCREASINGLY, I think the local poder man who comes around 7am and 5pm on his bicycle with a basket full of local pau/poie/undo can also bring around ragi and jowari flatbreads of village Goa and I would pay double for them! Nobody is inclined to start such a service though even for seniors who may not want to cook day in and day out – things I would buy at my doorstep are such things as the wholesome flatbreads of ragi and jowar, also the softer steam cooked “polle”/“amboli”…also a choice of wholesome snacks like “ragi idli, pohe, millet upma, puran poli” and some more. You may come and sell me steamed foods anytime! Okay, no more.
TO move on to another topic, recently while out at a sky lounge in a 5-star hotel, I was intrigued to notice how the elaborate snacks, no, I mean hors d’oeuvres, came garnished with these teeny weeny glistening soft greyish black balls, which on closer look it dawned on me were caviar! Mama mia, I haven’t eaten caviar in eons and was intrigued anew.
Why should anyone know caviar is an international super food! Most cannot afford caviar and I don’t think they care either; it’s only Continental food connoisseurs who take delight in such luxury food treats as caviar. But don’t knock this super food for it is super food and caviar’s nutrititional brief lies in that it has loads of omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B12, antioxidants…zinc, magnesium, iron, calcium. If anyone is allergic or intolerant to dairy they are prescribed caviar for calcium if they want great bones (and not suffer in later years from osteoporosis or osteopenia)!
The Russians are traditionally crazy about caviar, also the French and upper crust Americans; US big stores have a special section devoted to fish roe brands and caviar which is also fish eggs but only the sturgeon fish roe defines as caviar. Caviar is the most desired as true caviar. Reportedly, the sturgeon fish breeds in deep waters and takes seven to 15 months to release its eggs and the extraction and curing of caviar is a delicate operation.
Hey, one is supposed to feel a pop in the mouth while savoring caviar but I didn’t feel it, maybe I wasn’t concentrating, too busy talking! Famous caviar brands are Beluga, Ossetta, Kaluga and some more…in India caviar would be Rs8,500 to a lakh per kilo but of course a kilo would go a long way if it’s used only in garnishing a menu’s hors d’oeuvres to impress a wealthier clientele.

A more travelled friend of mine who goes goo gaah when she sees caviar confided, if you don’t get a feel of the deep ocean while savoring caviar forget it, the caviar has lost is marbles or something like that! Also, it cannot be too salty with a double dose of salt in the curing. There is also silky golden caviar and I’ve seen this around at some super luxury hotel buffet spreads but I don’t remember tasting it, the deep golden caviar looks beautiful though as it catches the light. Lesser mortals may be happy with salmon and trout roe but it is not caviar, okay. Only sturgeon fish roe is caviar.
Okay, forget caviar! I don’t really care so much for it. Incidentally, those who are lactose intolerant are advised to eat caviar for calcium! You may also eat the monsoon greens of Goa beginning with wild greens like taikilo or Malabar spinach which greens are all the rage nowadays since the rains have set in…every day do greens for lunch. Either chop and dunk in hot water and remove, season with sauces or chaat masala, or do a raita using curd or Greek yogurt.
Needless to say the monsoon season is for fasting, one meal a day, soups, rasam, greens, fruits. Sleep off to the rhythm of the falling rain, etcetera! Rain, rain come again, make it an all-rear round affair…like love.