Rustling up a treat in Palolem

A short train ride brought us to the south of Goa and the beach town of Palolem. We chose to stay in the town rather than the beachfront as the water was only a five minute walk away and you can get more 'bang for your buck' in the town. Palolem is a lot more built up than Gokarna, probably due to the accessibility to the beach, but it manages to maintain the feel of a quiet beach resort due to the lack of high rise buildings and upmarket chains. We had three days here and spent our time strolling up and down the beach, people watching, swimming in the sea and trying to decide which delicious restaurant we should eat at next! Our favourite restaurant, but one we could only visit once because the fresh fish is always at the top end of our budget, served me some amazing langoustines cooked in garlic butter and lemon juice and James, tandoori fish which was 'melt in the mouth' delicious.

After our culinary delights we were inspired and managed to tear ourselves away from the beach and booked us both on a cooking course. We were on the course with another couple, Mum and son from Scotland, so James was on translation duty! Within three hours we had learnt to make saagwari chicken, mushroom masala, taghali/tandoori chicken, chapatti and on our request our favourite, paratha. It was a great lesson with some delicious food that we all devoured when the lesson was over, washed down with a Kingfisher beer bought from the restaurant next door. Our teacher was really nice and praised us a lot, James and I loved this! He gave us the recipes of the food we made and more so we will definitely be holding some Indian themed dinner parties in England!

We reluctantly left Palolem for the North of Goa, especially after speaking to a few people who warned us of the Russian invasion happening. Our informant was a guy from Canvey Island (so Essex) and the only southern voice we heard in Goa; apparently it isn't only the Russian invasion but the North of England have also migrated here.