FASTING, FEASTING

THE 40 DAYS OF LENT IN GOA IS WHEN MEAT AND FISH TAKE A BACKSEAT, AND THE REGION'S RICH VEGETARIAN TRADITIONS HOLD SWAY, REVEALING A SOULFUL, NOSTALGIC CUISINE ROOTED IN FRUGALITY, FAITH, AND SEASONAL ABUNDANCE

- Words → RAUL DIAS

GROWING UP GOAN, I ALWAYS FELT THE word "dichotomy" was invented for and by us. Goa is a land where its progeny often lose themselves entirely to the vagaries and vacillations of life. We laugh, cry, celebrate, and mourn with equally unbridled passion.

There is no better example of this incongruity than the season of Lent. As a "Bombay Goan" child who regularly visited Goa for Easter, Lent was a deeply felt time, not just in prayer or ritual but in the very rhythm of our lives and, more so, our kitchens. The usual boisterousness of our meals, which would otherwise be filled with seafood and bonhomie, gave way to more reflective fare. Meals were simpler, quieter, and largely vegetarian.

But don't mistake this simplicity for a lack of flavour. If anything, this was when the true genius of Goan home cooking shone through. For many of us, Lent was when the vegetables took centre stage.

A CULINARY VOLTE FACE

Many Goan Catholic families observe the 40 days of Lent that lead up to Easter Sunday as a period of abstinence and penance. Traditionally, that meant refraining from meat and sometimes even fish, which is no small feat for a coastal community like ours. But our grandmothers and mothers, with their deft hands and generations of inherited wisdom, turned this constraint into a canvas for creativity.

Harking back to the dichotomous aspect of our "Goanness," Lent was also a time when indulgent grandmothers would suddenly morph into ferociously religious creatures. They would not think twice before swatting off grubby little Oliver Twist-esque hands asking for another helping of pez (also called kanji)-the simplest of rice gruels rationed out of zealously-guarded earthen pots called kulnes in my family's Salcette dialect of Konkani.