Bebinca, Cashews, and an Indian Donut in Panjim

Vinesh took me to Panjim, otherwise known as Panaji, after showing me the churches of Old Goa.

Panjim is the administrative capital of Goa, while Porvorim is the legislative capital. You can see Porvorim from Panjim, across the Mandovi River.

I was desperate to get some food stuffs to take back to the states. My parents are huge foodies who wanted me to bring back tons of Indian snacks. But after looking at air-puffed bags of namkeens, which I love, I realized that they would push the contents of my luggage over the top.

So, I decided on two Goan specialties:

• Bebinca!
• Cashews!

My travel guide book told me that I'd find bebinca in Goa and that it was the perfect souvenir because they are vacuum-packed and ready to travel!

I was immediately curious about Goan bebinca because in Hawaii, we have Filipino bibingka. I was beginning to doubt my memory of the bibingka of my childhood being Filipino in origin -- and started thinking that it is Portuguese. This is because a strong Portuguese presence is what Goa and Hawaii have in common, in addition to the beaches, climate, old hippies, and recreational drug use.

After reading up a bit on the topic, a prevalent conclusion about the origins of bebinca is that it is a Goan recipes that migrated to Portugal! But how did it get to the Philippines to then make its way to Hawaii?

According to a fascinating discussion thread on this very topic, it sounds like the Portuguese and Spanish were often curious about each other's culinary discoveries and everyone stopped in the Philippines during their colonial travels -- so if the Portuguese didn't share the recipe, the Spanish did. This discussion thread also points out, interestingly, that Goan recipes are considered to be Goan or Indo-Portuguese, rather than Indian or Portuguese.

Vinesh pointed me in the direction of a good bebinca shop -- and I was off, while he read the paper in the car in the town square.

I could actually cross the street on my own in Panjim, but I didn't let it go to my head. I had been so conditioned by Hyderabad and Delhi traffic -- that I still flinched as I stepped onto the relatively empty roads.

As I walked to the bebinca shop, I passed by a toy store and spotted an Indian Barbie displayed on a high shelf. I immediately ducked in and asked to see it. It was a terrible knockoff for $50! I was tempted -- but imagined that she was made of lead and toxic plastics, so I was able to resist.

I found the bebinca shop and was pleased to find that they also sold bags of cashews, which my guidebook also told me to pick up in Goa. The roasted cashews were pale and huge and had a very different, yet pleasant, flavor than the cashews I've had in the states.

I regret not seeing any cashews growing in Goa, but this is what they look like according to Google images. The brown nubbin at the bottom of the fruit is the cashew! India is actually the country with the largest land area producing this crop. Cashews are native to Brazil and were introduced to Goa by the Portuguese, who also had a strong foothold in Brazil.

I picked up a few bags and headed back to the car, but was distracted by Cafe Coffee Day, which I had been to in Hyderabad with Srividya and Priya at the end of our sari shopping adventure.

It brought back fond memories, so I headed over to get a sweet lemon tea. Little did I know that I would soon be confronted with one of the most beautiful things I had seen in India yet!

Indian donut!

It was huge and gently warmed. I was in heaven as I listened to a heated discussion amongst some very westernized Goan girls smoking cigarettes and looking anorexic on the patio...

I finished my tea and headed back to Vinesh, who I was very happy to find because it isn't always a guarantee that J-Ha will find her way back to fixed locations immediately.

Oddly enough, I am more likely to be reunited with people and things in unfixed locations over relatively vast periods of time.