- Jagruti Katkar
smaller, personalised food gatherings are offering another way to eat out While social media keeps buzzing with restaurants and cafés to try in Goa. Supper clubs are bringing people together over themed menus, home-style cooking and intimate tables, where the experience often extends beyond the food.
Exploring a cuisine also means understanding the culture behind it for Deepika Figueredo, 28, from Saligao, who hosts supper clubs at her family home in Aldona. In Mapusa, Anjali Anilkumar Walavalkar is using her supper club, Anjali’s Table, to revive lost Saraswat recipes through small gatherings built around coastal flavours and traditional food.
I even learn about the kind of music that they listen to there, so I can play it in the background,” she says. I’d rather keep the experience intimate,” she says. “Every gathering at Anjali’s Table is more than a meal, it’s a chance to slow down, share stories, and celebrate tradition together,” she says.
Her curiosity about food has taken her menus from Korean, Moroccan, Vietnamese and Japanese to a recent West African supper club. “I can kind of get a chance to delve into that country and figure out what they cook, what the ingredients are, why they do what they do. For Kate, chef and curator of intimate supper club gatherings featuring Northeast Indian and other themed cuisines in Saligao, the experience goes beyond simply eating. “It isn’t just about coming in, eating and leaving. You’re sitting around a table with a small group of people, sharing a meal and experiencing food together. I want to create a space where food, stories and community come together. Shubhra Shankhwalker takes the experience to her family farm in Camurlim near Siolim, where she hosts private lunches centred on Gaud Saraswat Brahmin cuisine. Her menus draw on traditional recipes, seasonal ingredients and local produce that don’t always find their way onto restaurant menus. “I’m representing my mothers’ and my grandmothers. I don’t want to rush the food or make it commercial just for the sake of doing more.
Having travelled to nearly 40 countries, former journalists Andrea Lopes and Rohit Nair found that some of their most memorable meals were served in homes rather than restaurants. This inspired them to start Roam Supper Club at their home in Betalbatim. “We believe real food is unpretentious, and has a story. The supper club is for people who wouldn’t mind sitting next to a complete stranger, striking up a conversation, and possibly making a new friend,” they say.