My dad was a food connoisseur / gourmand / epicurean for sure!!! I did not know the meaning for all these fancy words 25yrs ago.

Today as we celebrate, yes we celebrate his 25yrs of passing away, here is a very mystical experience I would like to share. My dad loved good food, no second thought about that. If my mom taught me how to cook my dad taught we how to choose the best ingredient to cook and introduced me to good food.

I am not at home on this day and was in Salem with my friend to stand by her when she was talking about an initiative that is very close to our heart. But at the same time this 25th year was as important for me. As you all know Salem does not have a coast and fresh sea fish is a little difficult to source here. My father was a total seafood freak ( well yeah that’s were I have got my love for seafood from) and when it comes to meat he loved mutton and Salem gets some really good mutton. Infact when we were young my mom and we 4 girls has a bias for chicken and dad loved mutton and most of the time it was choice of majority.

A day before his passing away on 30th April 1997 my dad wanted to eat sardines/ mathi but could not do so and on 1st may he was no more. 25 yrs later in a place like Salem I am offered Fresh sardines/ mathi, what do I call this, mystical? I get his most favourite meat mutton, made it his style Mangalore gravy without coconut. Goa, a place that he wanted to retire and settle brews some amazing spirits. I am just back from Goa and so could serve his favourite drink, whisky. Ofcourse his favourite Dessert the mothichur ladoo.

I do believe that when our intentions are clear the path for everything opens up for us. Dear Papa bless our food and bless all of us from wherever you are, you are our guiding star and light!!!

Are you one of them who has evolved from fine dining food to experience based local food? If Yes Cavatina is the place you must visit.

Why Cavatina? Well many reasons atleast for me it gave me an experience of my childhood food. Modern yet local and traditional. Every dish is rooted to history and tradition including the local drink urak! The ingredients and produce used to make the dishes are sourced locally from local fishermen and farmers. Every dish has a story.

We wanted to taste as much as we could from the menu and hence settled for chefs tasting menu.

The pav and poder both hold a very important place in the goan food scene. And I am glad I could experience poder poder ponk ponk the dish that serves pav, day before left over curry ( it’s a delicacy) and salsa to add tang to the dish.

The bisque was a delicate crab xec xec with tender crab meet to bite into. The flavour was subtle and delicate.

Local inspired spanakopita was a beautiful mix of thamdi bajji ( red amaranth) cashew butter in delicate phyllo sheet. This beautiful piece of food art was served on a old roof tile.

The rice pancake stiffed with prawn masala was a bite into burst of Goan flavour.

Betul has the best rock crabs that were used to make Kulli ( crab) cutlets with canacona chilli served on a bed of avocado chili mole. The mole has a awesome native pickle flavour.

The chicken cafreal served with quail eggs on a nest of potato crispy is a beautiful tribute to the most famous goan dish cafreal!

Hay smoked mackerel served on toasted bread and topped with salted raw mango took me back to my school days.

Patra de Goa has delicate seabass wrapped with green masala in a banana leaf the in-house mashed pumpkin cashew and red amaranth adds colour and flavour to the dish.

The Red boiled rice with the prawn gravy served with a splash of burnt feni is every goans dream come true!

Everything good has to have a sweet ending and oh my gaud! Literally this cheese cake that is made using gaud ( jaggery) had that amazing smoked flavour of jaggery and every thing nice!

The raw honey flan had the perfect sweetness, flavour and texture!

The in-house made salted caramel icecream was nothing that I have had before!

Visit Cavatina if you want to understand real Goan food and flavours made using only local produce. Dining at Cavatina means getting a true Goan experience with loads of food history and stories! Chef Avinash is holding on to his roots and giving goans and tourist who are visiting Goa a true Goan experience.

Cavatina is at Benaulim Taj Hotel Road, near Joecons Beach Resort, Benaulim, Goa 403712

The most happiest soul food that I have had in recent times! Kochai karthi kadai is a place where you can find fighter cocks that are used to make the most amazing meal. On one of our drives from Chennai to Coimbatore a friend suggested us to stop by Chengapalli 60kms before Coimbatore to enjoy this traditional firewood meal and oh my god I cannot thank him enough.

Kochai karthi kadai is run by a family of 3 karthi his wife and son Saran. The firewood cooking is done only by karthi and his every smiling wife.

The concept of this meal is very simple. Firstly you have to book a meal you cannot walk in without reservation simply because the food is cooked on fire wood and is specially cooked in demand only for you, so a 2hr notice is required.

The chicken order is minimum 1kg and costs 1,600 rupees 4 people can easily relish a 1kg for small eaters like us. The chicken is cooked in authentic south indian style we had the pepper chicken, red chilli skin chicken and ginger garlic turmeric chicken these are all dry prepration. They cook the chicken according to your spice handling level starts with 6 chillies ( called as baby level) 9 is called the ladies spice level goes to 12, 15 and 20 too! So remember to mention your threshold, we did the 9 that was hot but manageable. This meal comes with a chicken gravy, chicken soup and two varieties of Rasam, tomato Rasam and raw tamarind rasam. Must also mentioned the quality of rice, it is aged best quality pooni rice. This meal served on a banana leaf is a heart and soul stealer.

This is a dine in and takeaway place and if you cannot finish your 1kg of chicken you get to takeaway the leftover too.

Karthi took us around the place and must say the place is clean hygienic and maintained like a home. Not a fancy place more like a mess.

Definitely recommending this place to everyone. If you are my kind of person who believes in happy, traditional and soul food don’t miss this for anything! Call Karthi to book your meal on +91 98426 12721 in advance and remember to mention your spice level.

The biggest nightmare and challenge that every recruiter is facing today in India is the conversion from offer given to joining. And that’s the first question I ask every candidate that I call for a recruitment position.

Who is worried about how many offers you rolled out, tell me how many joined and what is your success and strategy for that conversion.

As greedy as people could get it’s a fact that if you are the first to offer a person who has 3 months of notice period you are his last prefered employer. The moment he/ she gets an offer, there is when the real job hunt starts. By the time the candidate joins that last company that he negotiated the salary he/she would have managed a minimum 100 to 200 percent hike. So 3 months is used to get more and more and believe me there is no end to it. I have had candidates whose current salary was 9 lacs got their first offer for 12lacs, next one for 15lacs, 18lacs, 20lacs and finally joined the company that offered him 22lacs.

Now who is to be blamed for this ofcourse the employers who keep giving these offers just because they are desperate to fill that position.

Can we bring an end to this drama? Yes we can. How? Like I always say once a person has resigned his contribution and loyalty for that employer starts going down. Those are also people who can create more harm than adding any value to your organization. Let them go, 3 months is a ridiculously long time to keep someone in the system well only if you want to show the head for the headcount. Like most of the countries 2 week’s is a good time for knowledge transfer and farewells!

To all my senior management and decision makers of an organization, if you are looking at hiring people and looking at only immediate joiners it’s time to let your people go immediately too. It’s a circle and someone has to break it. 2 week’s believe me is a good time to let go and induct a new employees!

Yogita Uchil Human factor corporation