By Odette and Joe Mascarenhas

Now if you think this is a Bollywood blockbuster you could be right, but there is a small difference. This Bollywood starrer is a Mumbai-based Italian restaurant that is now at Panaji. If you want to know how Bollywood dines, Café Mangii proprietor, Prashant Chaudhri has created just the place for you.

Mangii – Italian for mango – is a celebrity haunt in Mumbai. ‘After extensive research we have short listed 90 per cent of the favourites listed on the Mumbai menu and brought it to Goa for the discerning gourmet at very competitive and affordable prices,’ informs manager Roston Colaco.

Talking about titbits, the crisp golden coating of the prawn tempura combined with the chef’s special butter garlic sauce was delicious. I took a crunchy bite of the bruschetta with its topping of Roma tomato, sweet basil and camembert cheese drizzled with balsamic vinegar, and closed my eyes in sheer pleasure.

‘Well this preparation can be had as insalate too,’ chef Krishna Khetle, the force behind the culinary preparations, informed. I look at him reverentially…the taste of the bruschetta still lingering in my mouth. ‘We use imported items specially brought in from Mumbai,’ he smiled adding, ‘and it guarantees authenticity.’

Authenticity is so important. Fast foods and old favourites like pizzas and pastas have taken away the sheen of the real flavour. There is a separate menu for pizzas, the thin crust variety, prepared in an oven right in front of you in the restaurant section. We decided to have a pepperoni pizza. The oven fired with mango and rubber firewood seems to give the thin-crust pizza its own signature taste and believe me there is a stupendous number of preparations listed on a separate menu exclusively for pizzas.

But we were here to check out what made Bollywood patronise the place. Surely it was not only their pizzas, although, one must admit, the concept did add pizazz to the place. So it was back to Menu No 3.

‘What zuppa (soup) do you recommend?’ I asked the chef. ‘Try our lobster bisque,’ was chef’s recommendation. Well always check out the chef’s recommendation for he is bound to be right, and he was. That thick seafood flavoured soup, deep red in colour with miniature pieces of lobster was simply amazing. 

‘Wow! What was in it?’ I asked

‘Flambéed cognac,’ was the reply. What more can one ask for?

But there was more to come from the antipasta, the chicken liver pate, calamari fritto (batter fried squid) and the gnocchi patata (a dish to die for). If I tell you that it is mashed potato with spinach and parmesan cheese I would not be doing justice to the taste. The creamy spinach and cheesy taste wrapped itself around the chef’s labour of preparation (the potato). So too was the gnocchi pesto made with cous cous.

Kuch kuch hota hai was my comment Bollywood ishstyle after the penne alla romano reached the table. Now this was the anti-pasta stage. The creamy white wine sauce, which coated the pasta to perfection, rolled smoothly on the palate imparting flavours unheard of. A must try especially when the waiter sprinkles freshly ground pepper from the peppermill. And the rissotto with champagne? Even Joe who does not care for this preparation took an extra helping. Maybe it was the champagne that added the zest, but for me the chef had cooked it to perfection.

There are many more preparations I could vouch for, but I have to come to the dolci, the desserts. Italians always knew how to plan a grand finale. Words cannot define the tiramisu. What can I say about the crème brulee? Before I could spoon in more than two mouthfuls Joe had done the honours. And here is a man who says he does not have a sweet tooth!

A place where definitely dil ‘Mangii’ more…