Restaurants in South Goa, whilst keeping the taste buds of the locals salivating, attract Indian and foreign tourists with fish-curry-rice – served as a fish thali – showcasing one of the staple meals of Goans. One place doing this calls itself Home Made Food and is situated at Pulvaddo in Benaulim.
Located at a junction – one shooting towards Varca and beyond to Cavelossim and the other towards Benaulim, Colva and all beaches therein – Home Made Food starts by serving its clients breakfast in the morning and ends with a fish curry and rice, its trademark, till around 4 pm.
The quaint-looking restaurant – no frills, just basic chairs and tables, fan, wash basin and washroom – is one of the better restaurants along the coastal belt that serves a curry whose smell hits the nostrils from metres away.
The beauty of the thali is in the curry. This one is made with just the right amount of coconut, neither too spicy nor bland, a proper squeeze of tamarind water, coriander and boiled in either fish heads, mackerels or sardines.
“I started this restaurant in 2018 when I left my job on a ship and decided to fulfil my dream of having a restaurant,” admits Keshav Gudekar, owner of the hub that sees most customers leaving satiated.
“My sister Sandhya Kadam manages the kitchen. We call it mother’s cooking because she learnt from my mother and decides on the ingredients. The crowd you see is proof of the effort she puts in to prepare homely food,” beams the happy brother.
Fish thali is the main or only dish available, though at times customers prefer to eat plain fried fish. “Our fish consists of the daily catch. Fresh fish tastes different from frozen fish and since most of our customers live on the coastal belt, their taste of fresh fish is refined,” informs Gudekar.
Situated at a junction, the line of cars and two-wheelers parked outside the restaurant draws the attention of all travelling through it till around 3 pm. Customers need to queue for their turn, especially between 2 pm and 3 pm, due to scarcity of place.
Our fish consists of the daily catch. Fresh fish tastes different from frozen fish and since most of our customers live on the coastal belt, their taste of fresh fish is refined
Keshav Gudekar, owner of Home Made Food
Home Made Food (or mother’s recipe as Sandhya says), is one of the few restaurants that does not serve alcoholic beverages, it has only soft drinks and juices, and the sound of ducks quacking form the background music before lunch arrives to the table.
“When there is no time to cook at home, we find it convenient to parcel a curry and fried fish from here. The curry is cooked in Goan Hindu style and the fish is always fresh,” observes Cleto Rebello from Varca as he awaits his parcel.
“I prepare two types of curries. One with fish head and tail, the other with mackerel or sardine. Kashmiri chilies and ungrounded pepper are two main ingredients,” says Sandhya whilst explaining the crunchy taste of the fried fish.
“We first started catering to taxi drivers and slowly had locals stopping for meals. The taxi drivers, on their part, recommended us to their customers and that is how we have so many tourists,” explains Gudekar, as he oversees work in the kitchen.