Culture - The Goans are fun loving people who enjoy good food and drink, as much as they do music and dancing. And evidence of this can be seen in the many hotels that offer regular live entertainment. The music is usually western music, due no doubt to the strong Portuguese influence. Fish curry and rice is our staple diet, but we are also partial to pork. We are a multilingual people. Konkani is our mother tongue but we also speak English, Portuguese, Hindi and Marathi. Our culture is a wonderful blend of the Indian and the Mediterranean and this is evident by our dress, language, music, religion and laid-back attitude to life. We tend to enjoy life to the full and many visitors to our wonderful Goa will confirm this. Our favourite tipple is Feni, which can be distilled either from the cashew fruit or from coconut and is considered to have medicinal properties much as brandy is supposed to have in the west. Feni goes well with fish curry and rice but can also be taken as a sundowner mixed with lemonade. Being a coastal resort, the staple diet of the Goans is fish curry and rice, and coconut is used in most of our recipes. The most popular fish is, I suppose, kingfish followed by pomfret and mackerel. Then there are tiger prawns and king prawns and lobster and all these are favorites to be found in all tourist hotels and restaurants. Because of this demand, the locals find that they have to make do with other types of fish. Rice that is grown locally is of the thick grained variety. However, basmati rice and other long-grained rice is the variety mostly served in the hotels and restaurants.

. Many of us are Roman Catholics ( 30 -40%) as is evident by our Portuguese surnames. We rub shoulders with our Hindu and Muslim Goans without any animosity whatsoever and are proud of being Goan above all else.