3 days ago
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.
