Latest news with #Petisco
The Hindu
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
The Purumenth menu at Goa's Petisco features six drinks, and comes with postcards
As a child, a core memory for Dev Narvekar was getting off at the bus stop in Panjim and making a beeline for a fresh lime soda. The drink was frothy, with bubbles that went up his nose and mouth and added to the experience. Decades later, now as head mixologist at gastro-bar Petisco, also in Panaji, Dev is bringing that childhood memory to spectacular life. It is in the form of a mango chilli air that sits daintily atop a drink called Saxtti. It pops, and bursts in the mouth too. Saxtti is one of six drinks on a special monsoon cocktail menu at Petisco. It is a menu that showcases Gaon ingredients and spirits, and a fast-disappearing practice. Once upon a time, Goans would spend the summer stocking up provisions for the torrential rains ahead — also a lean month for fresh produce and fish. This stocking up included pickling, drying, fermenting, salting, and other preservation methods applied to a variety of foods: fish, prawns, mango and jackfruit seeds, kokum, and tamarind. This practice was called purumenth (a Konkani corruption of the Portuguese word, provimento or provisions). The easy availability of produce today has reduced the importance of this practice, which is now restricted to little markets, some church fairs, and certain corners of Goa. Today, it is finding new space in our cocktail glasses. The Purumenth menu at Petisco is just six drinks, and comes with postcards, highlighting the ingredients in the drinks. It is not just a prop: write a letter and the team will post it for you. Each drink tells a different story — of produce, of childhood memories, and of purumenth ingredients. There is the GI-tagged short and fiery Harmal chilli, grown in Harmal village in the north, turned into a tincture; the local palm jaggery whipped into a silken sweet syrup. Coconut and tamarind are fizzed into a soda, and solam (kokum) is mixed with dry mango and spices to create bitters. The alcohol used here is tequila and the local spirit, feni — popular homegrown brand Cazulo, and new kids on the block, Goenchi. One is a popular spirit worldwide, the other, in Goa. The aforementioned Saxtti has tequila, a chilli tincture, and the brine of that beloved Goan pickle, chepni tor (raw mango pickle). 'Saxtti was a region in South Goa, which comprised of 66 settlements, hence the name (derived from the Konkani words for 66). It also refers to Salcete taluka, and the (dialect of the) language spoken there,' says Dev. 'We've used chillies from the region.' The sour-style drink is served tall, with a mountain of that mango chilli air. On the palate, it has a piquancy with underlying spicy notes. In-Feni-Tea is a play on words and a tribute to the Goan penchant of drinking futi cha (black tea) in the monsoons. The cocktail has Cazulo's café feni, black tea, jaggery rum, coconut jaggery syrup and is served with a turmeric leaf. The ingredients (coconut, jaggery, turmeric) remind me of that steamed sweet, patoli, but the drink is more warming. 'It's a take on the hot toddy. We are serving it in a mud cup to showcase Goan pottery, which was once common in our kitchens,' he says. This Goan pottery is also the star of Budkulo Martini. Budkulo (earthen pots) were once used to keep water cool. Here, he uses it to store vermouth, which is then used to create a very dirty martini. Interestingly, instead of olives, he uses pickled kadna (karvanda), a local berry. 'This is the Goan version of olives,' Dev says with a smile. The pickled kadna is a throwback to his childhood, and fighting with his siblings to get the kadna in a pickle. Drunken Sailor is like a highball, on the sweeter side, with a salted galmo (dried baby shrimp) rim and a galmo cracker shaped like a fish. 'I was inspired by the kismur (like a dried shrimp salad) using ingredients like coconut, green chillies, and tamarind,' says Dev. There is also a low-waste policy governing the drinks. Take the West Coast Feni, for instance. The refreshing drink stars Goenchi Feni's West Coast Kokum feni with a Harmal chilli tincture, and lemon, rimmed with rock salt. It is served with a fruit leather made with the ground chilli mixture and jackfruit; jackfruit leather is another popular purumenth treat. The most stunning of the drinks is the Ambot Tik. Named after a popular fish curry that is sour (ambot) and spicy (tik), it uses the Goan choris as a fat wash for Goenchi feni, chilli, and a sublime recheado syrup. It is a smokey, spicy, drink redolent with the aroma and flavour of sausages and the spice of the recheado. Dev is largely a self-taught mixologist, picking up much of his creative flair and experiments during stints at Marriott in Goa, working on the ship for six years. He has been with Petisco almost from the beginning, honing the drinks and creating new expressions that showcase Goan ingredients: there is even a dodol-inspired drink. Dev is a proud Goan and it reflects in his drinks — the ingredients are not used as a gimmick but are treated with thought and care. An inherent need to showcase different aspects of Goan life is what drives Dev's work as a mixologist. 'I've been doing Goa-forward drinks for a few years now,' he says. His Purumenth menu is Goa, distilled in a glass.
Mint
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Mint
Lounge Loves: A film club, ‘Toward Eternity' and more
There are two titles restored by Film Heritage Foundation in the Cannes Classics selection this year. One is Satyajit Ray's 1970 film with Soumitra Chatterjee and Sharmila Tagore, Aranyer Din Ratri. The other is a lesser-known film, though just as accomplished, only now getting the refurbishing it deserves: Sri Lankan director Sumitra Peries' Gehenu Lamai (1978). This was Peries' debut, but the direction is assured and intimate. Set in a village, this delicate black-and-white film is about the lives of two teenage sisters dealing with the complications of first love and societal pressure. Wasanthi Chathurani, also making her debut, is tremendous as Kusum. I'd seen breadfruit in carts and stalls in Goa, but hadn't tasted it till the personable bartender at Petisco in Panaji, Sherwin, recently suggested it as a pairing for his 'Imli pop', a tangy cocktail made with seasonal urrak, jaggery and a brine spiced with jalapenos and chilli. Breadfruit, like jackfruit of which it is the more elegant cousin, is the new favourite of chefs looking for inventive non-meat substitutes. Its versatile potato-like flavour and bready texture lends itself to all sorts of dishes, including the breadfruit fritters with a salad that Petisco has on its menu. But breadfruit made the shift from 'nice' to true favourite when Sherwin opened up his tiffin box and made us taste his mother's nirponos, or shallow-fried breadfruit lightly coated with rava, which she'd packed for his dinner. Old style hospitality beats fine-dining any day. Writer and translator Anton Hur's debut novel Toward Eternity has been an absolute joy to read. Curing cancer by replacing human cells with inorganic 'nanites' that not only makes the recipient cancer-free but also immortal? An AI trained on Victorian poetry that develops consciousness, and an appreciation for Christina Rossetti? A far future scenario with Biblical undertones? Inject it directly into my veins! I may sound flippant but this is a novel absolutely bursting with ideas. It feels like Hur (who I was delighted to discover was on the panel of judges that has just bestowed the International Booker Prize on Heart Lamp)—could have spun three or four books out of this cornucopia, but somehow they all fit together in one perfect novel. A friend co-runs a movie-screening initiative in Mumbai, @Secret7Cinema on Instagram, and it has become my favourite weekend activity of late. Each session begins with two iconic films pitched against each other. Everyone in the room gets 1-2 minutes to present their case—why this film, why now—and then we vote. The majority gets to decide if they want to flip a coin, otherwise, the losing team sits through the winning title. Last week, it was a fight between two Sanjay Dutt anti-hero flicks, Khalnayak and Vaastav. I voted for Vaastav, and that's what we watched, although someone else made a better case to swing votes in our favour. It's a playful but passionate exercise in debate, far from the noise of social media hellsites. No quote tweets, no hot takes, just voices in a room, arguing for the love of cinema. Paradiso.
