To pao or not to Pao

Away from Mumbai for the past six months, i miss the street vada pavs and the cutting chai that so well accompanies it. But it's not like Goa falls short in the street food dept. Say hello to the choris pao and the cutlet pao. for most people who made their way to Goa, sometime or the other, the choris pao is no stranger. Available in most local restaurants, they all take a bit. The cutlet pao however is an altogether a very goan street snack.


On those hot, hungry nights, when pages have gone two hours late and the people at the printers are hollering through the phone, we take a break and head to Miramar beach. still unsure of the place it is very conveniently called the Cutlet Pao place. Aside from cutlets of beef fried in raw and dashed with salad, then stuffed into a pao, they also serve a variety of choris pao, chilly fry, sorpotel, and a bunch of other dishes that have found their way from either a chicken, pig or cow.
Not one for red meats, i somehow can never escape an offer to eat there.
I once decided to go there along with Llyod and Jerome for a bite after work. For all the hardwork we put in this seemed like a befitting pay-off.
the place opens at around five, and when we ask for whats ready, they have only two things. Pork chops that i don't eat, and cutlet pao. So i order the cutlet pao. ? I eat here often enough to know what a good cutlet pao tastes like, and when i bite into my order, i know that this is not it.
My pao is dry and the cutlet is somewhat stale, with a rather odd mushy taste. I cone to a theory that they sell off last days portions first and then start off with he new stock. This being done in most restaurants and fast food places. So the next day, in order to test my theory, i got here at eight o'clock and buy another cutlet pao. It's crisp, tasty and the bread is soft. Perfect...well as close to perfect as the Miramar cutlet paos can get. The ones in Calangute are by far better, even on the worst of days.
So now I've come to the conclusion that one should wait until at least the first twenty percent of the orders have gone out to make your own. Then your assured to get a good plate of food. Obviously if you wait too long chances are all the good food might get over and you'll be stuck eating the worst part of the stock they could find to fry.

moral of the story: Old is not gold...Old is stale.