Goa Beyond the Beaches: Heritage, Feni and Fish Curry Rice

Four centuries of empire in one afternoon

When Afonso de Albuquerque seized Goa from the Bijapur Sultanate in 1510, he launched a colonial experiment that would last 451 years — the longest European occupation in Asia. The Basilica of Bom Jesus, completed in 1605, still holds the miraculously preserved body of St Francis Xavier. The Se Cathedral next door is the largest church in Asia. Together with the Church of St Cajetan (modelled on St Peter’s in Rome), they earned Old Goa UNESCO World Heritage status in 1986. Walk the laterite lanes of Fontainhas, Panaji’s Latin Quarter, and you will find azulejo-tiled balconies, tavernas serving chourisso pao and a Konkani-Portuguese patois that no textbook teaches.

But Goa’s story begins long before the Portuguese. The Kadamba dynasty built the Mahadeva temple at Tambdi Surla in the 12th century — the only surviving Kadamba-era structure, deep inside the Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary. Hindu temples were systematically destroyed during the Inquisition (1561–1812), yet Goan Hindu families hid their deities in neighbouring Karnataka and returned them after liberation in 1961. That history of quiet resistance is stitched into every village festival you witness today.

Feni, toddy and the cashew orchards

Feni is Goa’s gift to world distilling — a double-distilled spirit made from either cashew apples or coconut toddy, granted a Geographical Indication tag in 2009. Visit a traditional distillery (bhatti) in Colvale or Siolim between March and May when the cashew harvest peaks. The first distillation produces urrak (a mild, cloudy spirit); the second gives feni proper at 40–45% ABV. Sip it neat with a slice of lime, the way every Goan grandfather insists.

Fish curry rice: the soul of Goan cooking

• Fish curry rice (xit-kodi-nustea) is the state’s daily bread — kingfish or pomfret simmered in a kokum-and-coconut gravy, served with parboiled red rice.
• Pork vindaloo — not the British curry-house version, but a slow braise of pork in a paste of Kashmiri chillies, garlic, toddy vinegar and jaggery.
• Bebinca — a 16-layer coconut pudding that takes four hours to bake, one layer at a time.
• Ros omelette from a street-side stall — a fluffy omelette drenched in ros (spiced coconut-onion gravy), best at 11 p.m. after a night in Tito’s Lane.

The other coastline

South Goa is what North Goa was 30 years ago. Palolem’s crescent beach, Agonda’s nesting Olive Ridley turtles, and the backwater village of Cabo de Rama (named after Lord Rama, who Hindu legend says sheltered here during exile) offer a quieter Goa that pairs well with the laid-back coast of Havelock Island in the Andamans or the Dravidian shoreline of Mahabalipuram. For more beach stories, see Beach destinations across India.