As the cool, winter weather slowly starts to fade away, the heat looks to have made a surprisingly swift return. But even the sweltering heat is not enough to keep the tourists away. Goa certainly does have its own charm. Be it the new generation attractions like the clubs, restaurants, and boutique hotels or the old-fashioned charm like the culture, tradition, greenery, food and of course the many monuments, Goa always seems to have something for everyone.
Speaking of monuments, the Aguada Fort is nothing short of spectacular, the 400-year-old fort has been a popular place for tourists and locals alike. Such is the grandeur of the fort that it has also, in recent years, been a famous filming spot for Bollywood movies like Golmaal, Singh is Bling, Honeymoon Travels and more.
However, quietly tucked away among the ramparts of the 16th-century fort you will find Goa’s first luxury resort. A stunning 42-acre property running through and around the fort breathes life into this well-aged, behemoth like structure. With its lush green lawns, alluring landscaping, stunning views and beautiful rooms and villas, walking into this property leaves you feeling nothing less than royal, just like the hundreds of celebrities, government officials and other famous people that have stayed at the property over the years.
Besides its visual charm, the Taj Fort Aguada Resort & Spa has a wide array of restaurants to cater to your cravings, the highlight for today being Morisco. The elegant restaurant and grill overlooking the Candolim-Calangute beach stretch serves a variety of Continental and Goan cuisine along with grills and live counters in the evenings. Fresh seafood with a picturesque view of the Arabian Sea, what more could you want?
The restaurant has now introduced the Goan Heritage Thali menu which features three different kinds of thalis with an aim of giving customers the taste of Goa in the convenient and compact form of the popular thali. The chefs at the Taj Fort Aguada Resort & Spa after much research and brainstorming have come up with a way to incorporate some of the most popular Goan dishes into a meat thali, a seafood thali and a Saraswat style vegetarian thali.
I decided to try the classic seafood thali and of course, the prospect of having popular Goan meat dishes in the form of a thali sounded too interesting to pass on. Starting with the seafood thali, this one came with a prawn curry, rawa fried slice of kingfish, crab xec-xec, dry shrimp kismoor and tendli sukhem. All thalis come with salad, rice, sol kadi and papad.
Now lets get down to business, the prawn curry was delicious with its bright orange hue. Filled with small prawns it was certainly something to savour, especially for someone like me who is a big fan of small prawns or shrimps. Also, unlike most places that have two-three pieces of prawns, this one was loaded. The crab xec xec was also pretty great and the use of mud crabs instead of the regular crabs sure did play a role in enhancing the flavour. They were cooked to perfection and barely required the cracker since the shell was so soft. I enjoyed the vegetarian aspects of the thali like the tendli (baby cucumber) and the salad too. The salad had cucumber, cabbage, sprouts, capsicum and bits of pineapple. A rather different, yet refreshing take on the traditional salad. I was also served a plate of spinach and tomato papads along with a dehydrated brinjal pickle and sweet mango pickle. Before continuing with the meat thali, let me remind you that they also do serve a vegetarian thali that comes with tambdi cha bhaji (red spinach), iriel bhaji (runner beans), ambaddeche sansav (hog plums), rawa fried raw banana, tendli sukhem and the usual accompaniments (salad, dessert, sol kadi, papad, balchao naan)
Moving on to the meat thali, mutton and chicken are the most popular meats eaten in Goa by almost everyone leaving aside culture and beliefs and so this meat thali features two mutton dishes and two chicken dishes along with a tendli sukhem and the accompaniments for the thalis.
Starting first with my favourite of the lot, mutton sukha masala which came as described –succulent pieces of boneless mutton in mouthwatering masala with bits of onion. This was followed by a mutton xacuti and for the chicken there was the classic Chicken Jirem Mirem which is a chicken in a traditional jeera-pepper masala along with the local favourite Chicken Cafreal. It’s great to see that the Taj has managed to incorporate these four famous dishes into a convenient package making it super easy for everyone to try almost everything Goa has to offer in one go. They also serve a Balchao Naan with all thalis, yes, you heard right, a Balchao Naan. It looked like an ordinary butter naan but as soon as I took one bite, there was this subtle taste of a masala, very close to my heart. It was indeed the balchao masala that was lightly incorporated into the naan.
I absolutely loved how the restaurant put in efforts to make the experience as Goan as possible. All thalis are accompanied with ale bele for dessert which is an authentic Goan dessert that features pancakes filled with coconut and jaggery, the perfect end to a perfect meal.
But wait, there’s more! I mean, if you want more, of course. All three Goan Heritage Thalis at the Taj Fort Aguada Resort & Spa are unlimited, which means whether you want an extra piece of fish, two more prawn curries or even six glasses of sol kadi, you can have it. An unlimited thali that features almost everything Goa has to offer when it comes to food, now that’s a 5 star experience. Don’t miss out on this experience as the resort keeps changing the menu every 40 days depending on whats in season, in stock and fresh.
(Akio Fernandes is a passionate foodie and the owner of The Hungry Wolf food blog – that showcases various culinary delights across Goa)
