I love Monsoons as much as I love GOA, and combination of both makes me more happy. Usually people always ask me why do you visit Goa in Monsoon it's an offseason. My answer to all of them is rain makes everything 100x beautiful and a place like Goa which is already so beautiful is at the prettiest. Also offseason you have financial benefits as everything is affordable.
Don't believe me check them out:
Generally, I am a water baby but when in Goa the foodie in me is always hungry. Yes, for me Goa is all about food. I do visit the beach and relax with a pint or two. But the main purpose is FOOD. I generally love staying in Panjim. As its quite and peaceful. This time we stayed in
Hotel Campal, Panjim. This time I made the booking from makemytrip.com, as the website offered good discounts
(I mostly prefer OYO Rooms).
As we had booked tickets of a train which we realised after booking that it doesn't stop at Karmali or Thivim, so we got down Madgaon (Margao) and that is one part of Goa I have never explored. We thought why not go around find some interesting places.
DAY 1
We could not explore much as it was raining heavily. But the city of Margao / Madgoan is beautiful with pretty bungalow and church all around, we visited a church called holy spirit. Also as Madgoan is known for it's authentic Portuguese-Goan cuisine. So we decided to have lunch as we were quite hungry and then head to Panjim, where we were gonna stay. We tried this place called "Nostalgia", a very well known place for authentic Goan Cuisine which has won multiple awards. I was in love with the Ambience and the huge place. it is so beautiful and well maintained. And the food.. OMG the food was so yummy that we were having lunch for good 2 hours. I over ate so much that I couldn't walk post lunch.
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| Prawns rawa fry |
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| My all time favourite food |
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| Serradura |
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| The Amazing Bar Counter at Nostalgia |
Post a heavy lunch we left for Panjim. We took a kadamba bus service(Goa's State Bus service), they have recently started with a shuttle service bus which is AC bus and is a direct bus with no stops. The charges of which is only 40rs. Very reasonable. And reached Panjim in an hour.
PANJIM.. I love staying in this city and its my dream to spent my retired life here. This city has its own charm. It's a city with both traditional as well as modern vibes, A perfect combination.
As the agenda for this trip was food, we checked-in in our hotel and freshen up, hired scooters from our hotel travel desk, and left for restaurant hunting for dinner. We discovered a traditional kokani restaurant named - kokni Kanteen. Before entering the restaurant we read the reviews on Zomato and then entered the place. The interior is beautiful with ethnic feel. And the food was equally awesome. Order for the Goan style squid chilly and prawns curry & rice. And if you visit on a Sunday for brunch or even lunch. They serve fish thali which takes you in heaven. Yes! I visited this restaurant twice in this trip.
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| Fish Thali on sundays |
DAY 2
Next on my list was a to discover a island villages called chorao and diwar. So we left early in the morning picked up breakfast from a super market in area. And directly headed to Chorao via Raibandar. And even after following Google map we still managed to get lost. We asked few locals for direction and reached at the hill top of the island. There is a small holy cross and it is said that one can see ariel view of nearby Diwar island and Panjim city. Sadly, we couldn't get inside near that holy cross as the gate was locked.
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| Holy Cross at the top of the hill on Chorao Island |
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| My co-travellers: Mom, My brother and cousin Sister |
After exploring, it was time for lunch we went Le Jardin, Mapusa for lunch. This is one of my favourites I have been going here for last five years as it is near my Mapusa home (Yes... I own a flat in Goa). I loved Prawns curry and rice here, but that is what I have always ordered for so decided to try Crab Xacuti and rice, Chanok rawa fry, few beers and ended it with amazing serradura. This is one highly recommended place for good quality and reasonably priced food.
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| Carb Xacuti and rice |
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| Chonak Rawa Fry |
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| Serradura |
Visting Goa and not going to a beach is a sin. So post lunch we headed to Condolim beach and relaxed for a while watched the sunset and headed back to our hotel.
Being a saturday night we thought we'll go to a happening lounge and we discovered a lounge called Taverna, Panjim. With pretty ambience and amazing music. But sadly we were not happy with the finger food. So we had our drinks and headed out to find a local food joint. We saw few rass omelette joints, we decided to have that. Rass omelette is an Goan street food which basically is omelette topped with chicken gravy and served along with Pav or Poee. There are so many Rass omelette joints near Panjim Market Chruch. (couldn't click picture of rass omelette as there was no place to stand)
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| Teverna, Panjim |
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| Pretty Ambience |
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| Rass omelette Joint in Panjim |
DAY 3
Day 3 was pretty chilled as it was our last day in Goa. We checked out at 12:00 PM and directly headed for lunch at Kokni Kanteen. Ohh... this place is full on Sundays. we waited for 1 hours to have lunch. Finished our lunch and headed to Karmali station for our train back home.
An amazing food journey came to an end with lots of memories.
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