Goa

Gail and I just got back from a week in Goa. Today I'll just give a quick overview of what we did and go into more detail over the next week or so.

We did a five day cooking course with Judy Cardoza of On The Menu. The 5-day course consisted of a day of North Indian, a day of South Indian, and a day of Goan cooking. We also visited the market and a spice plantation. We learned so much about Indian cooking techniques, spices and lots of interesting anecdotes.

We stayed at the Taj Holiday Village and loved it. Had a great little villa, the pool was nice and the gardens colorful and lush. Beautiful views of the sunset everyday. The staff were excellent and friendly, especially our favorite housekeeper who created towel art for us. On the second day he made Towel Ganesha for us:

Gail and I both plan to write some articles about the cooking experience and so we asked to speak to the chef at the hotel. Chef Rego spent two hours talking about his passion - cooking of course! - and he is such a humble and nice man.

Saturday was a day to shop hard and bargain hard! We shopped from ten in the morning til ten at night: at the hotel, on the street and at the night market. We ended the night back at the hotel restaurant where an Indian group was celebrating a 40th wedding anniversary. The Bollywood tunes were playing and they were dancing. We had a great time watching them and then even funner when they made us get up and join them.

It was a busy, nonstop week, full of new experiences. More to come over the next week...