Life of Poi
Learning the art of Goan breadmaking in Majorda.
The first time I went scuba diving was also the first time I discovered Goan cutlet-pao. It was love at first bite. My diving instructor had picked them up from a roadside vendor at the jetty and offered them to us before we went into the sea. The texture of the pao was a bit different from what I was used to – neither as soft as the pao in Mumbai, nor like the pav-bhaji pav I was accustomed to eating in Delhi. It was firm on the outside, soft-but-not-too-soft on the inside, and between the cut slices lay a delicious rava-fried fish cutlet with cabbage and tomato chilli sauce.
I discovered poi (or poee) much later. I think it was on a day tour with a local travel company and they had served it for lunch with chicken xacuti (curry) and other Goan delicacies. I dreamt of that meal for the next few days.
It was only when I moved to Goa few months ago that I delved into the nitty-gritties of the difference between pao and poi, and discovered a variety of other Goan breads: loni, kankon, undo, katre pao, kadak pao, banana bun, gavachi bhakri….
But how did the rice-eating Goans come to make and eat so much bread?
Correct, the Portuguese introduced it in the 1550s when they didn’t take a liking to the local rice and roti in Goa. Bread was an integral part of their diet and it was impractical to transport it all the way from Portugal, since it would go bad by the time it reached India. So they decided to teach the Goans how to bake bread with locally-sourced ingredients. They picked Majorda and neighbouring villages due to the availability of high-quality toddy (local palm liquor made of the sap of the coconut flower) used to ferment the dough (as a substitute for yeast). They taught the art of baking exclusively to the families of Chardos (former Kshatriyas and Varnis who converted to Christianity) because they were deemed to be very hygienic and were not actively engaged in any other profession (unlike the other communities). Soon, several bakeries popped up, bread made its way into local cuisine, and the art of breadmaking gradually spread to other parts of Goa and the country.
When I discovered that Soul Travelling (one of my favourite travel companies in Goa) has started a breadmaking experience that includes a visit to one of the oldest family-owned bakeries in Majorda, I knew I had to go. The day tour started at the Majorda railway station where our guide, Tavanya, gave us an overview of the history of Goa, Majorda, and the art of Goan breadmaking. We then walked over to Joao Menino Godinho’s Bakery, across the road from the station. Here, we met 78-year-old Mr. Godinho himself, who was busy preparing the dough with his assistant.
Mr. Godinho is a former government officer who worked in the health department before taking retirement to return to baking. He is a third generation baker and runs the bakery from what was once his parents’ home. “Breadmaking keeps me active and occupied,” he says, before disappearing to the back of the bakery to bring more wooden trays.
The Godinho bakery has one of the biggest wood-fired ovens in the area, with a laterite stone foundation, walls, and dome. Laterite is a soft stone that breaks easily and is bound with traditional mixers like jaggery, lime, and mud. Inside the oven, glass, stone, and sand is filled up from the ground to about 3 feet. Salt is used to layer it up and terracotta tiles are laid to form the base where the dough is placed to bake the bread. This structure is ideal for baking at high temperatures as it retains the heat. Hard wood is used as firewood and the oven is heated by putting burning charcoal inside. No live fire is used while baking and bread bakes within a minute!
Mr. Godinho and his assistant prepare the dough in the morning and start baking prep around 2 pm. Poi is made from whole wheat flour and maida - though Mr. Godinho claims that most bakers today use more maida than whole wheat flour. It is fermented with toddy for two days, then rolled into a ball, flattened like roti, dusted with wheat bran to protect it from the coal, and then placed inside the oven. The baked poi is round, crisp on the outside and soft and hollow inside, similar to pita bread. It is now a staple in most Goan households and devoured with Goan chorizo (pork sausage), vindaloo and xacuti curries, ros omelette, cafreal, and just about everything.
Loni, on the other hand, also known as cutlet bread, is made entirely out of maida. The dough is super soft, is manually rolled like poi, but more elongated. It is ideal for sandwiches and equally tasty.
I got to try my hand at making both types of bread, as well as kankon – a tiny bracelet-shaped baguette. All three turned out to be great, and I have to say, the bread at Mr. Godinho’s beautiful rustic bakery is the best I’ve had so far in Goa! No wonder he sells his 400-450 pieces of freshly-baked bread directly to customers. “I have my regulars; I don’t sell through poders (bread sellers who go from village to village on a bicycle with a basket)” he shares. By 4 pm, the bakery is filled with the delightful aroma of poi, and customers start trickling in. On most days, they’re sold out within an hour or two.
Learning how to roll, shape, and bake poi and loni made for a memorable Sunday afternoon. But the tour didn’t end there. Tavanya took us to an Italian restaurant called Da Tita where we turned our poi into a panini by adding some fillings and toasting it in the restaurant’s modern wood-fired pizza oven. While it tasted delicious, nothing beats the warm, buttered poi we demolished at Mr. Godinho’s within seconds of him taking it out of the oven. Needless to say, the taste and smell of freshly-baked Goan bread will linger for a while!
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'It was love at first bite.' 😂
Superb, Ila! This post had all the warmth of freshly-baked poi.
I LOVE bread and this was such a treat to read! (Now I really want to visit Goa :/)