That tourism is a two-edged sword is only too well known. It may benefit one-fourth of the Goan population but adversely affects at least three-fourths because of rising prices. King-prawns can only be smelt during the week. Only on week-ends or Sunday can one venture to ask the price, let alone buy them. But then once in a way one must buy them or else what�s the good of living?

But even though food is costly there are a number of restaurants which give you value for money (VFM). The trouble is that they often get big and bad. So it is an interesting exercise (or pastime) to spot them before they deteriorate. And the beach belt in North Goa (especially Calangute and Baga) has a liberal sprinkling of gastronomically outstanding restaurants. Like pub-hopping in Bangalore (or even Bombay now), restaurant-hopping is something to do in Goa. One can pick a restaurant a day and there are some really good ones.

Souza Lobos in Calangute is one of the oldest and best known restaurants and though some feel that the standards have fallen I was quite satisfied with the food and the cleanliness. Two of us shared a plate of prawns and mussels and washed it down with two glasses each of fresh orange juice and the bill came to Rs.250. Quite reasonable. After that I met the young proprietor, Jude Souza Lobo (22), and he gave me a brief resume of the restaurant (actually it is Hotel Souza Lobo, which has only three rooms, the restaurant is more famous) which is the Mother of all Restaurants in Calangute.

Ask Jude why it is so popular and his answer is �mum is in the kitchen all the time�. Another plus point is that it is open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. without a break so if you want to have a European-style supper at 6 p.m. it�s ideal. It gets quite crowded at peak hours and there are long queues then. Their speciality is Goan cuisine--roast pigling, chicken caffreal, xacuti, sorpotel and pork vindaloo and seafood especially lobsters, king-prawns, oysters, mussels and squid. Service is prompt even though it has 160 covers (a new term I learnt for customers).

Ronil�s Beach Resort is another place known for its Goan cuisine and more than half the reason for its popularity is that their manager is chef Rui Madre Deus. He�s been in the business for over two decades and what he doesn�t know about cooking is not worth knowing. �We specialise in authentic Goan food,� says Rui rattling out names like shinnaneo (mussels), tisreo (shell-fish), balchao (prawn prickle) and mixing the dishes with Konkani words which provide the dialogue with a flavour that brings out the gastronomic juices half as much as the special ingredients he uses in his preparations.

Prawn-curry-rice is just Rs.60 but tiger-prawns is Rs.350. Goan balchao with bread costs Rs.90, so there�s a good mix of cheap and expensive dishes. What�s more with Rui�s reputation one can rarely go wrong with the good.

St Anthony�s Bar and Restaurant has come down a bit. It was great in the 1980s but its loss may have been Britto�s gain. it is equally popular with the foreign tourists as well as the locals. We had beef chilly-fry (two of us shared a plate, so copious was the helping), with fish fingers as starters, and washed it down with two cokes. The bill came to a very reasonable Rs.150.

The owner Cajetan Britto has recommended seafood platter which comprises prawns, fish, mussels with white wine and butter garlic, squid and baked crab, all scooped out and placed in a shell, easy to eat. It is priced at Rs.125 which seems appetising as well as easy on the purse. Must try it next time.

Tito�s in Baga is today a happening place where socialites from Bombay rush to, more to be seen than to sample the food. There�s blaring music on weekdays and even more blaring disco on weekends. I had fish with garlic sauce and dessert and the bill came to Rs.150-odd, fairly reasonable (prices have been reduced lately). Proprietor David D�Souza has virtually turned his restaurant on its head but with the crowds comes the tension. �I like what I am doing, but I liked it better before,� he says as he nostalgically goes back to the seven-table balcony restaurant his father Tito started in the early 1970s.

Casa Portuguesa is an evenings place and lawyer Francis D�Souza, who runs it, entertains his covers by playing the guitar and singing too.

This year pubs have started springing up but among the more popular ones is the Log Cabin run by Leslie Fernandes at the Crossroads Inn in Calangute, Tinto. It has a chatty ambience and no wonder popular with the Brits who make up 70 per cent or more of the foreign tourists.

Towards the end of Calangute (almost the last house before you enter Candolim) and off the beaten track, nearly 200 metres East of the Calangute-Candolim road, is a boutique-type, ambience place called After Eight (remember those minty foreign chocolates?). A bit pricy but ideal to take your girl out for a special treat. Run by Virendra Singh (25) and Soumyen Chakraborty (30) it specialises in Proper Continental food.

A three-course meal (soup, main dish and dessert) comes to about Rs.500 for two. But the place is spotlessly clean, it has an open kitchen and the bottom line is that the food is good. Virendra and Soumyen worked in the Taj, Bombay, together, one in the food and beverages division, the other as a chef. Soumyen also spent two years on the P&O liner �Victoria�. When on one of their regular holidays to Goa (they love the place) they decided �why not set up a restaurant?� And with two years they concretised their dream. Great.

If Italians, Germans, the French and the British are setting up shop here why not our own Indians. And they are doing a very professional job too.

So this is what the hippie advent has done to the Calangute-Baga belt. The concrete-jungle may be a sort of eyesore but the restaurants, and the value for money ones, are certainly a compensation. Why, even an attraction.

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