whenever i visit goa i don’t forget to have the pao. of course, growing up in maharashtra and still living here, i have a lot of pao around me. but the goan pao… is goan. as the pao is goan. is it not?

i always thought the pao was maharashtrian. why? because it was readily available in pune. there was pao bhaji. surely, it was maharashtrian… and years of pao-eating, made it boring. and i didn’t quite think it was that ‘special’!

fast forward to many years later, and then i find myself in goa. in a local restaurant in panjim, and i ordered for vegetarian x – quintessential goan right? (except for the lack of pork? or is it beef?) and there is was, sitting prettily in a basket, pao. what was this little guy doing here in goa? i asked around… and found out that pao was goan long before it came to maharashtra. and way back before that, it journeyed across the seas and came to goa from portugal!

that makes the humble pao so much more interesting… sitting in my own backyard, i managed to travel the seas!