posted by Savanah on Jun 19
I was told, if I want to find the essence of Goa, India , to check out the Friday Market located outside the Mapusa Municipal Market in Mapusa. I didn’t know if that’s exactly was my husband and I were wanting to visit during our stay at a Goa Resort Spa , but we decided why not. Why not, it is Friday after all and it might be interesting to see how the locals live from day to day.
We found only a few roads or lanes in Mapusa‘s business area have names and even fewer residents know them. Instead, the locals, use landmarks to navigate. Luckily, the biggest landmark is the Municipal Market where we were headed anyways. We did our best to stay unobtrusive and obscure so as to be able to truly see how the locals interact. We saw mostly housewives from Bardez and Tiswadi attend the market and descend on the stalls selling a staggering variety of local produce which was brought in by the local farmers and what seemed to be small time backyard gardens from all over Goa. My husband and I were quite impressed. The Friday Market was a parade of color and noise. The Goan women wore their most colorful best. We trying to not stand-out, wore the wrong clothes, our white linens. We stood out like a sore thumb. Oh well, we decided to just go with the flow and through ourselves into the throng.
The stall hawkers not only sold local produce, but manufactured wares, including spices of all kinds. We found wonderful bargains at the market. Fresh fruit, mostly organically grown. We were drawn to an almost elusive smell that had our noses twitching, Goa’s ingredient for all their splendid sweet and sour curry dishes. Locally known as tamarind or amot . We sat down at a makeshift table and devoured a scrumptious red rice curried dish apparently known for it’s longevity and good health qualities. We topped that off with a dish made with fried Goan Churis, a mouth watering sausage spiced and marinated in feni. We were in absolute heaven. The best part about this Friday Market was the shopping, we haggled our way through every stall, thoroughly enjoying the win-win atmosphere. We were back to our hotel room by dusk, absolutely exhausted but terribly enthralled.
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