On The Beach

Zeebop
Uttorda Beach, Salcete, South Goa
Tel: 2755333
Meal for two without alcohol: Rs 1,200
Rating: ***

n Ian Fleming’s novel Thunderball, set in the Bahamas, James Bond takes the sultry Domino Vitali to a romantic little restaurant hidden away on a beach and plies her with Bloody Marys, leading eventually to a seduction scene under the casuarina trees. Change a detail or two about the joint and you get Zeebop: the same idyllic setting, the same white sands, turquoise sea, rustling coconut palms and whispering casuarinas. You laze in the shade of deep thatch awnings and order Bloody Marys (the delicious, bikini-clad Domino, alas, is strictly optional). Mr Fernandes brought us a large tray of the day’s catch to inspect, bought from Margao market in quantities just sufficient for today’s needs (so if they run out, bad luck). With his help we finally decided on prawn peri-peri followed by a red-snapper recheado and crab xec-xec. The fiery red snapper recheado was balanced out nicely by the crab xec-xec, cooked in a coconut gravy. But the highpoint was the prawn peri-peri, originally a Portuguese recipe from Mozambique, which nipped deliciously at one’s taste-buds (the word peri-peri literally means ‘chilli-chilli’ in Swahili). We feasted leisurely on these, reflecting on the fact that there’s nothing like the taste of fresh seafood, simply cooked, eaten on the beach, while your cellphone is gloriously out of range to the world. They also serve their own lethal Zeebop cocktail, combining tequila, rum and Red Bull, but drink it at your own risk.