Malvani Cuisine

Had my first tryst with Malvani food today in a food fest at the office cafeteria. Malvani cuisine, like Malvani Konkani, is a variation of the Karwari and Goan cuisines peppered with associations with the Gaud Saraswat Brahmin community. The menu ranged from Komdi (chicken, for the uninitiated) wada to prawn curry and the normal food with some unpronounceable names (not their fault of course). It also included 2-3 liquids in different colours. They don't seem to have any veggie curry item 'cos the liquids had nothing but coconut and ground groundnuts. Every Malvani-Karwari-Goan or Saraswat meal is rounded off with a delicately fragrant, carmine coloured brew, the Solkadhi. This is made from Kokum, the dried peel of the luscious red fruit, Ratamba or Garcinia, which the Portuguese brought into India along with chilies and potatoes from the land of the Incas and Aztecs. This brew was also present and I felt that it smelt like some flower, rose may be. I cannot say whether the food was good or bad because I don't know how it should be. But it did not suit my palate. Still it was worth a try.