Love your bakes? Here’s where you can find your fix of oven-fresh treats in North Goa.
The sobriquet ‘pao’ sits lightly on the shoulders of Goans. It’s true, we love our bread. We can eat it all day, in different shapes, with different ingredients making the dough. It can be part of a meal or a meal itself or a tea-time snack. It’s found in our street food. It’s found in restaurants and shacks, now waking up to the various uses of the simple poee.
A bread binge
There’s bread to be found everywhere in Goa, from the poder (bread maker, originates from the Portuguese word for baker, padeiro) who visits on his cycle daily carrying fresh poee and unndo, to brick-and-mortar bakeries that sell breads and other baked goods and even cafés with a fresh bakery counter. People are baking bread at home, selling it on order, experimenting with flours and fermentation. You will never be left wanting for good bread in Goa.
Here’s a list of some places in North Goa that will satiate your dough-y cravings.
Baba Au Rhum
Break your fast at this popular bakery, named after a rum-soaked cake. The aroma of freshly baked goods greets you as you enter this lush space overlooking paddy fields. The tiny French bakery is also an all-day café, offering good food — slow cooked — made using fresh and locally sourced ingredients. Their stars are the breads, particularly the croissants. A bite of the almond croissant, filled with almond cream and decorated with slivers of almonds, is the sweetest treat to kickstart any day.
At Anjuna. Instagram
Babka
The coffee shop and bakery is small, with minimal décor. On the menu are eclairs, choux, mini cakes, tarts, bagels, and of course, the bread that gives it its name. In savoury fare, there’s quiches, bagels, toasties, and sandwiches, paired with coffees and smoothies. They offer vegetarian and vegan options too. Their customised cakes are a hit, apart from their tiramisu.
At Anjuna. Instagram
Bakers Street
They call themselves the one-stop-shop for cakes, coffee, desserts, breads, savoury bites, and shakes. This Porvorim favourite is usually crowded, with people seeking customised cakes, breads or quick bites and snacks, all reasonably priced. You can always smell fresh bread baking in the back. Do like the locals and make a beeline for their doughnuts or cupcakes. There is indoor and outdoor seating for those who want to relax and enjoy their treats.
At Porvorim. Instagram
Baking Bread with Aaron
The bakery and patisserie occupies a cute space in a bungalow in Sangolda. There is indoor and outdoor seating; the latter has a life-size colourful mural on one wall. The baked goods, from flaky croissants to stuffed mushroom baskets, are attractively displayed on wooden shelves. There’s even a poder’s cycle stacked with focaccia. Go here for doughnuts and savoury buns.
At Sangolda. Call 8530696214 or 9769954730. Instagram
Cocoa Moga Bakehouse
The artisanal bakery/café serves preservative-free bakes — croissants, cakes, desserts, brioche buns, breads (including a wholegrain ragi loaf), and sweets like cheesecakes. It’s a tiny place, all yellow, and they take custom orders too. Their croissants are the most popular and other signature treats include rum balls, and the gluten-free cashew caremello made with Goan cashews.
At Parra. Call 090671 86132. Facebook
Confeitaria 31 De Janeiro
This longstanding local bakery has now become a favourite with tourists, who visit it as part of their trip to Fontainhas. One of the oldest bakeries around, they still have a wood-fired oven, out of which comes patties, cakes, pastries; they do Goan sweets too. If you are visiting, try the croquettes, rissois, and patties, and pick up dinner rolls and buns to go.
At Panjim. Call 0832 222 5791
Flour Power Bakeria
Mumbai boy Aditya Trivedi ferments sourdough and pizza dough using freshly milled grains to create a host of good bread. On site, they serve wild yeast pizza, sourdough toasties, croissants, and cookies. His USP is sourdough and its available on order: Think variants that include activated charcoal, turmeric, and spirulina.
At Anjuna. Instagram
Handmade by Namrata Pai
Image: Handmade by Namrata Pai.
Pastry chef Namrata Pai started out baking and selling her goods from home during the pandemic, before opening her first shop in Assagao. Handmade by Namrata Pai is a small place at the end of a leafy shaded pathway, offering desserts, cakes, savoury bakes, and more. Her cakes are true works of art. Signature items include the Textured Chocolate Cake, Roast Chicken & Green Onion Pie, Pasteis de Nata, and Lemon Ricotta & Raspberry Tea Cake.
At Assagao. Instagram
Larder & Folk
The makers of the best cookie we’ve tasted in Goa, Larder & Folk is a relatively new addition to Panjim’s buzzing food space. Helming the kitchen is Priyanka Sardessai and her husband Siddharth Sumitran, and they’ve created a menu that has breads, cookies, and savoury fare like sandwiches, Bánh Mi, and hand-pulled noodles. They make the softest brioche buns and introduce seasonal specials like the brilliant summer mango fried chicken burger. The seating area is small, but the service is warm, and the food always delivers. Hits include the cookies, black forest donut, prawn roll, coconut sticky bun, and hot honey donut.
At Panjim. Instagram
Mr Baker 1922
A Panjim institution, this bakery has been meeting customer’s bread needs for 100 years. Run by a mother-son duo, Ninette and Nathan Fernandes, their counters are filled with Goan sweets like bolinhas, doce, perada, and more apart from patties, croquettes, biscuits, and breads. The small cosy place also has space for seating. Their bebinca is beloved, as are their Goan snacks.
At Panjim. Instagram
Down to Dough
Ruta Taraseviciute and Dwayne D’silva started making sourdough during the lockdown because they were missing the bread. Soon, they started taking orders for it and now they have their own bakery selling different kinds of sourdough cookies, cupcakes, bagels, and other bakes (gluten-free options too). Their sourdough options include hemp, chorizo, olive and black sesame, and even hemp; and a sourdough brownie. They make hemp baguettes and pistoletes, too.
At Anjuna. WhatsApp 8788850062. Instagram
Padaria Prazares
There are very few people who do not know about this café and bakery started by a husband-and-wife duo, Ralph and Stacy Prazeres. The menu scrawled on the board as you enter is long, but a better option is looking beyond the glass counters at all the baked goods laid out invitingly. There’s the vibrant yellow pastéis de nata (Portuguese custard tarts), meaty sandwiches, sweet and savoury Berliners, and seasonal pastries and cakes. Try their breakfast treat, a bread-and-butter pudding, the sweet berliners, and of course, the pastéis.
At Caranzalem. Instagram
Simonia Stores
This 59-year-old Goan bakery has everything you would want from one: Goan sweets, cakes, biscuits, snacks, and breads. It started with a single store in Mapusa and has now branched out to stores in Porvorim and Candolim. Their shelves are packed with cheese straws, cornflakes biscuits, wine biscuit, bread rolls, dodol, doce, bebinca, patties, toast, and more.
Paris Pao
This online bakery, with a kitchen in Siolim has been making waves since its launch. The baked goods are vegan, proofed for at least 24 hours, and made on order. On the menu are baguettes, different paos, and savoury fougasse. Standouts include marble baguette Zèbre, le Noir Pao — activated charcoal loaf with pumpkin, sunflower and flax seeds, and monthly specials — this month is a chocolate and cacao tin loaf called Chocacao.
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