02 Jan 2020
If you are expecting a cooking class then this is not for you. If you would like a tour of the market and a lovely lunch prepared for you (where you can help a bit) in a local house then it’s definitely for you.
The market trip and the cooking are not connected (we didn’t pickup any ingredients used in any cooking) although it was good to visit a market with some local knowledge (and we bought some spices for ourselves).
We then visited a local family in their apartment where lunch was prepared for us but we could ‘help’ (peel a potato, dip in batter and fry etc.) out a little. Everything was delicious but we did expect to be more involved in the actual cooking, to be more hands on and prepare and cook things ourselves. Also everything was very simple , like boiling some rice or frying some potatoes for example. Learning and actually cooking a Goan curry was more our expectation so this was very disappointing.
Our host family were very welcoming, friendly and accommodating. Our tour guide was lovely and keen to please .
There was some miscommunication at the start where the booking (via trip advisor ) was confirmed and paid for but the tour operator wasn’t aware of the booking. This was resolved within 30 mins or so but only because we contacted them directly before pickup with some questions .
In summary , an interesting guided walk around at the market followed by a nice lunch and some insight into normal life in Goa.