Four hundred and fifty years of Portuguese rule in Goa has produced a complex assortment of flavours, styles and culinary techniques. Goan food is often described as a healthy and seamless expression of Indo-Portuguese culinary syncretism. Indeed, Portuguese culinary styles and cuisine were often adapted or ‘Indianised’ by Goans to suit their tastes. Vindaloo is a prime example of this. Whilst the original dish introduced by the Portuguese involved meat in wine vinegar and garlic, Goans adapted the dish by replacing wine with palm vinegar. Substituting ingredients that were used by the Portuguese for those that were readily available in India became an essential part of the process of ‘Indianising’ Portuguese culinary imports.
But there are a variety of culinary styles, ingredients and eating habits that were introduced to Goa by the Portuguese, which were not strictly of Portuguese origin. The chilli, although brought to the Malabar Coast by the Portuguese, was native to South America. It is not known precisely when it was introduced, but it said that approximately 30 years after Vasco de Gama’s arrival in India, at least three types of chilli were seen to be growing in Goa. It was called the ‘Pernambucco Pepper’, a name which indicated that it had probably been imported to India from Brazil. From there the chilli travelled to Lisbon, before it made its way to Goa. Other ingredients that the Portuguese ferried to India from the New World included cashews, tomatoes, guavas, potatoes and pineapples. The cashew became the key ingredient for one of Goa’s most celebrated beverages, feni – also used in the preparation of several Goan dishes.
In addition to ingredients imported from the colonies, culinary techniques and food habits practiced by communities in Southeast Asia, Africa and the Americas gained popularity in Goa. In keeping with the Goan tradition of culinary innovation and adaptation, these practices were modified to accommodate Indian spices and flavours. The Goan dish popularly known as cafreal chicken – grilled chicken marinated in coriander, chillies, cinnamon, garlic and lime juice – is believed to have its roots in the Mozambican galinha piri-piri.
Similarly, sorpotel, a popular Goan pork curry, is said to have evolved from the sarapatel dish devised by the African slave community in Brazil. Feijoada, a stew made of black beans, is similarly believed to have been brought to Goa from Brazil. Balchao, a pickle-like concoction of typically Goan ingredients such as vinegar, chillies, tomatoes and shrimp, is believed to have evolved from the blachan, a dish made of fermented fish, prawns or sardines which was probably native to either Malaysia, Indonesia or Burma.
Chicken vindaloo. Credit: jules/Flickr CC BY 2.0
Yet how often would we see these dishes described as African-Brazilian, Mozambican or Southeast Asian? The culinary contributions made by communities belonging to the former colonies of the Portuguese empire are too often disregarded in the public imagination. Acknowledging these influences is needed not only to accurately historicise Goan cuisine, but to attribute credit where it is likely due. It also enables us to understand whether and how exploitative relations between the Portuguese empire and its colonial subjects in other parts of the world inflected Goan gastronomy.
Chicken cafreal, for example, is said to have been transported to Goa via the thousands of Mozambican slaves who accompanied the Portuguese to India. Its identity as a dish is thus inseparable from the slave trade that the Portuguese promoted. Sarapatel, which was popular amongst the African slave community in the Portuguese colony of Brazil, evolved from the latter’s exposure to the sarrabulho dish from the Minho province of Portugal.
However, unlike the Portuguese version of the dish which included rice and pork cooked in pig’s blood, the version appropriated by the African slaves of the Bahia province of Brazil allegedly relied upon offal and the less delicate cuts of pork which were discarded by their colonial masters. The sarapatel travelled with the Portuguese to Goa, where it evolved into the sorpotel that included a tempero paste comprising chillies, garlic and turmeric ground with vinegar. Although Brazilian-African sarapatel has little to no bearing on Goan sorpotel in terms of composition or flavour, the fact remains that the latter’s identity is closely entwined with the history of the slave trade.
There is no doubt that the Portuguese contributed to the emergence of Goan cuisine, both by disseminating their own culinary techniques as well as by enabling the cross-pollination of ideas and customs that originated in their other colonies. To overstate the point around Indo-Portuguese culinary collaboration and syncretism, however, is to undermine the significance of the role played by communities located in the other territories of the Portuguese empire in the Global South. Their contribution towards fermenting culinary experimentation in Goa is inarguable.
Supriya Roychoudhury is an independent researcher, focusing on international cooperation for development. She has previously worked with Oxfam India and Crisis Action.
