By Joe Mascarenhas
Recently I was watching some old James Bond films, which took me back in time to my college days. We used to wait anxiously for the next Bond film to hit the screen. In those days the films on 70 mm at the Regal cinema theatre in South Bombay created a larger than life action packed experience.
One of the films that caught my fancy was ‘Golden Eye’ which had Sean Connery starring as Bond. I still feel that he was the best actor to portray Ian Fleming’s secret Agent 007… but that is a personal view which many may agree. With these fond memories in mind I was walking down the beaten track of Holiday Street in downtown action packed Calangute, when I came across this eatery called ‘Golden Eye’ just near the beach side.
Now curiosity got the better of me and so I ventured into the restaurant and was pleasantly surprised to see a cozy well appointed place run by none other than Mathias Mascarenhas. Could this be a distant relation? I found out that he was originally from Calangute and this was his ancestral place…just a stone’s throw from the beach.
Since 1983 this ‘family run’ restaurant has been serving the choicest Goan delicacies like prawn amto, chicken in green curry with baby potatoes and other seafood specialties. So we decided to try these dishes which I am sure you will not find on any menu as it comes from Mathias’ mother Georgina’s recipes and cooked with tender loving care.
The prawn amto is Georgina‘s special creation and is a favourite among the locals where the seed of the mango called the paddo nestles in the gravy. In the rich yellow curry, the prawns were cooked to perfection, slightly firm in texture with the spices having delicately coated them. This dish one must have with steamed rice and if you need to thoroughly enjoy it, just use your hands, like in the olden days. And with a little pickle on the side; the flavours were just awesome.
The chicken in green curry with baby potatoes is another favourite. Similar to the beef in green curry with potatoes, that was made by my mother and was a regular Sunday dish in our home in Colaba. The taste was spot on and how I relished these moments of sheer bliss revelling in every morsel I imbibed. Did not need Bond to do the honours, the Goan salvo fired from Georgina’s cooking pot had a ‘culinary victim’ for life.
Besides the local specialties, Mathias specialises in the ‘niche’ grill preparations of New Zealand lamb chops, Australian pork chops or Brazilian T bone steaks …one has to keep an ‘eye’ out for these dishes. Now as these dishes are of the imported variety they are very popular with the international tourists who comes in on the charters, the Russians being top of the list.
And as the sea breeze wafts across the open space, the smoky grills tempt the senses. And the watchful ‘Golden eye’ an artistic creation of Subodh Kerkar which adorns the wall, looks on at the happy, satiated diners who visit again and again.
