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Goan cuisine consists of regional foods popular in Goa, an Indian state located along India's west coast on the shore of the Arabian Sea. Rice, seafood, coconut, vegetables, meat, pork and local spices are some of the main ingredients in Goan cuisine. The area is located in a tropical climate, which means that spices and flavors are intense. Use of kokum is another distinct feature. Goan food is considered incomplete without fish. It is similar to Malvani or Konkani cuisine.
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The cuisine of Goa is influenced by its Hindu origins, the four hundred years of Portuguese colonialisation and the Muslim rule that preceded the Portuguese. Many Catholic dishes are either similar to or variants of their Portuguese counterparts in both naming or their use of ingredients.
Seafood
The cuisine is mostly seafood-based; the staple foods are rice and fish. Kingfish (vison or visvan) is the most common delicacy. Other seafood delicacies include pomfret, shark, tuna, and mackerel. Among the shellfish are crabs, prawns, tiger prawns, lobster, squid, and mussels. The food of Goan Christians is heavily influenced by the Portuguese.
Introduction of new edibles to Goan cuisine
The Portuguese introduced potatoes, tomatoes, pineapples, guavas, and cashews from Brazil to Goa and consequently India. The chili pepper is the most important aspect of Goan cuisine, which was introduced by the Portuguese and became immensely popular as a very important spice for wider India cuisine. None of these above-mentioned ingredients were used in Goan cuisine before the advent of the Portuguese. The Portuguese also introduced beef and pork to the converts of Catholicism, which were and still are considered a taboo by some of the Hindus of Goa. However it is common to see people of either faith enjoy delicacies of the other.
Hindu cuisine
Hindu cuisine in Goa is mainly pescetarian and lacto-vegetarian, but lately the younger generation have taken up a taste for chicken & mutton, which was not common before. Hindu cuisine mainly uses less heat, tamarind and kokum for souring, and jaggery for sweetening. It uses asafoetida, fenugreek, curry leaves, mustard, and urad dal. It is not very spicy; less onion and garlic are used. It also includes more vegetables, such as lentils, pumpkins, gourds, bamboo shoots, roots, etc. It is less oily and the medium of cooking is coconut oil. Many parts of coastal Karnataka such as Udupi and Dakshina Kannada have adopted the Goan lacto-vegetarian cuisine, whereas few major parts of Uttara Kannada have adopted the psecetarian cuisine.
Popular Goan Hindu dishes include:
Catholic cuisine
Catholic cuisine in Goa is a fusion of Indian and Portuguese cooking styles. Vinegar (made from the toddy of local coconut trees) is used to give the zingy taste to the meat dishes.
Popular Goan Catholic dishes include:
Cashew laddus, nevryo, khaje, revdyo, peda, puran poli, sakhar bhat, madgane, and payasa are other well-known dishes. There are several types of halwa, such as dali kapa (halwa made from red gram), cashew halwa, mango halwa, banana halwa, pumpkin halwa, and dodol.