To walk into the 19th-century Portuguese-style villa that houses S.E.A. is to travel to an older, easier time: helped by a touch of on-purpose kitsch in the hanging seashell lanterns and light yellow floors. The long tables that hold a spread of seafood dishes bring a lazy lunch from a Margaret Mascarenhas novel to mind. And yet, the restaurant is anything but dated.
You’ll find S.E.A. tucked into the heart
of Assagao in North Goa. Likened to Bandra in Mumbai or Khan Market in Delhi, the small village has seen an influx of migrants from Indian metros, who choose it for its prime location (just far enough from the beach) and quiet, green lanes. It draws that kind of tourist as well: the seasoned traveller looking to
trade up on the overzealous party vibe of surf and sand.
Doing coastal in Goa without doing Goan food is a bold choice. But, says Saurabh Anand, the man behind S.E.A. and successful restaurants in New York such as Bhatti Grill and Awadh, attempting Goan food here is an expressway to mediocrity. “No restaurant can compete with the hole-in-the-wall haunts, like Vinayak [Family Restaurant] – the curries and thalis they do are so authentic!”
There are other coastal heavyweights like Gunpowder down the road, and the younger, equally popular Mahe in Anjuna – but, unlike the Malabar fare at the former and the modern menu at the latter, S.E.A. is going down a different route.
The menu runs the gamut of Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Malaysian and Sri Lankan recipes. And while the selection of meats is wide, the focus here is on the fresh catch of the day. “You shouldn’t put the names of the fish on your menu,” Anand advises, “because they might not be fresh. You can’t advertise red snapper and serve kingfish. You have to go by what’s been caught at the jetties that morning.”
By this point, a gargantuan lobster has made its way to the table, as have two plates of prawns, vegetarian stew, mushrooms with bok choy and two styles of beef. The large Kerala Prawn Thoran carries the classic coconut flavour, while the even larger Thai Grilled Garlic Prawns are all about letting that shellfish freshness pop. The Stir Fried Lobster, with the seawater saltiness of umami-centric Fujian cuisine, is worth coming back for.
“Each flavour traces back to the homegrown spices on Asia’s historic trade routes,” head chef Cyprian John Fernandes tells me as I sample the beef, tender and flavourful in both its forms: stir fried and in a rendang curry. “We felt these cuisines were untapped in the Goan market.”
The freshness of the ingredients is unmistakable – from the coconut milk in the stew to the still-green bok choy and lion’s mane mushrooms. In fact, many are homegrown, on farmland behind the villa.
In-house mixologist Evgenya Prazdnik (who previously headed up the bar at Gunpowder) likes to scour the nearby Mapusa market to replicate the Asian coastal flavours at S.E.A. “I look for Goan alternatives versus flying ingredients in – like using kevda instead of pandan leaves, which taste so similar but have the advantage of being endemic.”
The drinks I sample live up to expectation. The Cactus Alert, with prickly pear syrup, tequila and peppercorns, is a near-addictive assault on the senses, while the rum-based S.E.A. Blues, with its many coconut-infused elements, is practically an ocean breeze in a coupé glass. “We often use traditional Indian ingredients, like sarsaparilla [a bitter root] and turmeric, because they’re so therapeutic,” she adds.
Indeed, there’s a certain therapy in a meal on the quiet verandah of S.E.A. It manages to recreate the nostalgia of a languid lunch in a Goan villa through its old-timey setting, while having a menu as relevant as the neighbourhood it’s in. A bit of Goa’s past set in the locus of its future. That’s exactly what makes it current.
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