Why Travelers Explore More Flavors Through Buffet Dining in Goa

There is a particular kind of freedom that comes with standing in front of a long buffet in Goa, plate in hand, surrounded by the smell of coconut curry, roasting meat, fresh bread, and something sweet from the dessert end of the table. There is no time out for your decision. There's no push for the right food that's better for you, more familiar. It's all yours to maneuver, and for most travelers, the open invitation subtly alters their eating habits.

The people who come to Goa are an amazing mix. Delhi brides, British expatriates, Israeli backpackers, families visiting from Maharashtra on holiday in the winter months, and solitary travelers from all over Europe partake in the same tables and many of the same dishes. That's a lot of adventurous eating due to the buffet style of dining, which is more popular than any other.

The one thing that hasn't happened in Curiosity is a financial risk

Travelers eat more at buffets due to one of the most overlooked reasons – it's economical. Potato salad and soup come with a price tag at the restaurant in Goa, so do hamburgers and pizza. When ordering from a menu, each item comes with a price and a level of commitment. You order a grilled fish, and then when it comes, you aren't sure if it's what you wanted, and then you end up with a fish and a bill. Many travelers who are reluctant about traveling to a new country do so because of the fear that they are not getting the right order out of it.

But the buffet takes that out of the equation. The price is fixed. The exploration is free of charge. A person who has never had Goan prawn balchão can take a little at a time, go back to his seat, taste it without any consequences, and go back for more if what it tastes like works. So if it doesn't, then they just go to the next thing. That safety net isn't a light one to jump through. That's why buffet meals at Goa restaurants always attract customers to come for food they wouldn't have expected to take any risk ordering.

The Visual Invitation of the Full Spread

When food is placed in front of you instead of on a page, something happens! If it is someone who hasn't eaten kingfish recheado before, it doesn't mean much. However, if they come across a tray of beautifully red, deep fish under warm lights and a sign that identifies the fish, then curiosity is tangible. There's nothing like the appearance, the smell, and the taste of others wanting more to draw in someone to eat more.

This is an instinct of Goa's buffet restaurants. Dishes are not usually placed in a haphazard manner. Familiar, easy-to-grab foods are served at the start of the counter – rice, bread, some simple salad – and more distinctive regional dishes are served somewhere in the middle of the counter, where a patron will be moving and therefore more likely to grab something new. By the time a traveller arrives at the Goan fish curry, or the pork vindaloo, he or she has embraced the act of exploring. The layout of the buffet table is pretty subtle in its ability to stimulate appetites.

Goan food is an experience of discovery

The payoff for an inquisitive buff isn't the same everywhere. Goa is also a place where one can discover the true taste of the land and where the dishes served on any buffet table are not 'cosmopolitan' but a true repository of centuries of actual culinary history.

For more than 400 years, the Portuguese resided in Goa, and their imprint is forever in the food. Vinegar, a common ingredient in Western cuisine but not in other regional Indian cuisines, is essential to Goan cuisine. 

Some curries with the use of kokum, a sour local fruit, are tart tasting that will catch the first-time taster off guard. A deep-flavoured pork dish slow-cooked with offal and spices, Sorpotel is a pork dish that you won't find anywhere else in the country! The multi-layered coconut and egg dessert, cooked for hours to get right, is something that an outsider to Goa would never have tasted before, namely bebinca.

There are no novelty dishes created for the tourist market. They're the true fare of a place that has a personality, and when visitors come upon them at a buffet table, where first tastes are sometimes tentative and second servings are always welcome, it's genuine. That authenticity matters. It's what makes a meal memorable.

The group dynamics propel people further

But no one in Goa eats alone at the buffet, and the group mentality is more important than is often thought in Goa's food adventures. If someone at the table brings in a plate of unfamiliar foods and begins talking about what they taste, the people still eating their “food-safe” foods get up to investigate. People share their love of food with others, as much as you can write in a menu, you can share.

When children feel they have control over their own plate, they are more likely to eat at a buffet, and families that travel as a unit are more likely than normal to find that their kids are willing to eat at a buffet. A child who would not ask for fish curry if he is called upon to have it might very well have it given to him by himself and then consume it. With autonomy, the relationship with new foods is altered.

Repeat visits enhance the exploration

In Goa, many people stay for a week or more, and visit the same buffet restaurant more than once. This repetition of going out of one's comfort zone increases the adventurous food experience. The first trip is exploratory – a few charter additions to familiar anchors. The second visit goes further, being comfortable in the setting and having been reassured by the first visit. A tourist who doesn't know anything about Goan cuisine may be placing clam tisreo, solkadhi, and pork sorpotel on his plate on the third visit without giving a second thought.

Dining buffet is what it does when it is doing it right — from hesitation to comfort to true enthusiasm. It doesn't require visitors to come as adventurous eaters. It sets the stage for adventurousness to happen.

Something Worth Bringing Home 

Especially gratifying to have left a place after tasting it. People who travel to Goa for a week and only eat pizza and pasta due to their comfort zone are likely to say that they had a nice, but not very detailed, trip. The ones who are tempted by a buffet table to taste prawn xacuti or rice congee or a chunk of dodol bring home a taste that they can define, a dish that they would love to try again, a little bit of the place that takes root in their brains.

Conclusion

In Goa, buffet dining is not merely about satisfying hunger; it's a holistic experience that leaves a lasting impression. Best of all, it's a way to get visitors to be a little more curious, then even more, even more, until they are traveling and they have truly tasted the place they have visited.

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