Hello everyone,
Welcome back to another issue of Yesterday’s Curry newsletter - thank you so much for reading and for your continued support! For those of you who are new here, my name is Emma and I am a chef, cookery teacher, spice business owner and food writer based in London. I set up this newsletter to connect with my Goan heritage, and I hope you enjoy reading it!
Last week I had the pleasure of attending the Goan Cultural Festival at Cranford Community College in Hounslow and it was such a great day out!
It’s been a long time since I’ve been to any Goan functions; not just years but decades. The pandemic prevented me from exploring Goan events in person, and it was during this time that my interest in Goan culture and cuisine started. I do however have many memories of going to G.O.A discos when I was a child, the first places where I ate dishes like chutney sandwiches and sorpotel. As a teenager there were scattered family functions in church halls, but last weekend in Cranford was my first time attending a Goan event as an adult and for the purpose of experiencing new food, music and networking; a very different experience indeed!
My friend and I arrived at Cranford Community College around lunchtime, not really knowing what to expect. Naively assuming the event would be small(ish) and probably held in a church hall, it was a pleasant surprise to find a huge sports field lined with food stalls, slushie machines, fairground games and a giant stage with musical acts performing to the growing crowd. We got there early enough to avoid the queues which were colossal by the late afternoon and so we began our day by sampling some traditional snacks. My friend had never tried Goan food before, so we started gently with a trio of pao - choris, sorpotel and cutlet. All 3 were delicious, especially the cutlet, which was made with a thin but succulent layer of crispy semolina coated beef, a not-too-spicy chutney, and just the right amount of crunchy shredded cabbage.
After inhaling these in record time, we meandered around the grounds for a while, taking in some of the music as three men sang an upbeat Konkani song on the main stage.
Next up I spotted the stall for Goan Voice, a UK based organisation run by Eddie Fernandes. Goan Voice is a wonderful thing and I owe a lot of success to my earlier press interviews being shared on their site. We met and chatted with the Goan Voice team and being book lovers, spent a substantial amount of time perusing their range of cookbooks, biographies, travel guides and Konkani dictionaries and language books which had all come straight from Goa.
It was hard to not to buy the entire collection but I picked up a handful of books which piqued my interest the most. The first was “Anibal’s Cookbook” a little yellow A5 booklet with hand drawn illustrations on the cover. There are tonnes of recipes in it, and from a brief glance the variety is eclectic. Dishes range from Goan classics like Xacuti and Vindaloo to Duck Cabidela, Bobotie and Hare with lentils. Published in 1993 in the Netherlands, I am delighted to get my hands on this little gem, and if anyone has any information about the author Anibal da Costa, please let me know!
The second book I nabbed was “Masci, The Man Behind the Legend” by the acclaimed author Odette Mascarenhas. I was immediately drawn to this as I am very familiar with Odette’s food writing and have recently struck up an online friendship with her son Nolan, whom this book is also dedicated to. Three quarters biography with a recipe portion at the end of the book, I can already tell this is a book I’ll be reading from cover to cover to learn more about Chef Miguel Mascarenhas and his legacy. Finally I picked up a pocket Konkani guide for my upcoming trip to Goa (in January hopefully!) and a book of Goan cocktail recipes for my friend Vish. If I’d brought a rucksack with me I’d have been going home with 5 times the amount of books, but for now I’ll get started with these.
As the weather started to heat up, we made a beeline line for the Goan Cocktail Bar where feni and urak were the base of most cocktails. This was my first time trying feni and it was very potent and delicious! The banner was also scattered with cartoons in a style similar to Mario Miranda, which drew us in.
After soaking up the atmosphere for some time, we headed to a new portion of food stalls which hadn’t been there when we arrived. It was now about 4pm and the event was packed with hundreds if not thousands of people. Xacuti, sorpotel, Goan sausages, whole fried pomfrets; it really was a feast for the senses.
Finally, we headed to the main stage where the evening portion of the event was kicking off. First up was a DJ who played club classics to get the crowd going. This was so much fun and just like being at a festival. Everyone was in great form, with hundreds of people dancing and singing along to songs like Summer of 69 and Feeling Hot Hot Hot. Next up was singer Oliver Sean who performed a set with his band before Lorna, the headlining act, (flown in from Goa especially for the event) took to the stage. It was an epic day, and beyond exceeded my expectations. I look forward to many more functions and if anyone knows of any more coming up in London, drop me a line.
Before signing off,
I HAVE SOME BIG NEWS…
I am very excited to announce that I have been working on the launch of my cookery school (as an extension of my spice business) and for those of you based in London, or who are able to travel to London, I will be hosting my first Goan cooking class on Saturday 1st October in a beautiful teaching kitchen at Mission Kitchen in Nine Elms near Battersea.
You can buy tickets on my website:
WEBSITE TICKETS
or on eventbrite:
EVENTBRITE TICKETS
If you buy them directly from my website, I am giving a 20% to all you lovely people who read this newsletter so please enter discount code NEWSLETTER20 at checkout!
I only have 10 spaces on the course, so I really hope some of you are able to get a ticket before they sell out. I look forward to seeing you there! If you have any questions about the class, email me at hello@yesterdayscurry.com
See you all in next week’s newsletter with a cooking Q+A video
Emma x
The Goan Cultural Festival