Fish Thali in Goa

I am just back from five days in rainy Goa with friends and family. Actually with the no of times that this particular group has gone out on Vacations I should say ' With Family'.
With the week evenly spread between North and South Goa, I had the opportunity to see two different facets and sides which I had not seen on one single visit earlier.
Taj Holiday Village is a quintessential Taj experience. Great Service, Great people but very ordinary food. With the Desi Katrina hurling itself against the gauada fort as a background we were forced to stay within the confines of the Hotel and per force have food at the restaurants within the complex.
I have a healthy disrespect and distaste of buffet food and Taj did not do anything to change my opinion. the food was ordinary with even the Ala carte not doing anything to make it feel good. Even if the menu has to have the Indian Buffet fav of Paneer and Daal they can have some local variations but No that would be expecting too much I guess. The only positive was the pizzas that the kids had every evening, they were nice thin crust ones with the right amount of cheese and toppings.
Brittos at Baga was nice for lunch but I thought that the Crab Cakes had other meat also in it and it was not pure Crab. The grilled prawns were quite nice and the drought beer finally made me feel i was in Goa.
Pre Independence night saw the Taj chefs wake up from their slumber and create something nice and so had the variety of Beef Xacuti, Crab Xek Xek and grilled fish, chicken and prawns on the menu. It was quite good for me as I focussed my attention only on the sea food and like a true bengali decided to bring my fingers to the party. I really cant eat fish with Knives and forks, the la di la crowd be damned.
the next day was our trip the the intercontinental at Canacona which is the extreme south of Goa on the Karnataka border. In the time that it took us there we could have gone to Delhi and back and by 2 O'Clock my stomach was grumbling. We stopped at a small roadside eatery called Karmangla Hotel ( or something like that ). Since the choices were plentiful we orders Fish Thali and prawns. I think the secret of enjoying good food is to have it with zero expectations. The thali arrived in leaf plates and comprised of boiled rice, a bowl of spicy curry, mish mash of shrimps, a small fried fish and some mashed fish which was more fish bone than fish. The fish curry had the right blend of spice and the tangy flavour helped the rice get that feel of great accompaniment. The fried fish had a coating of Sooji which gave it a nice crunchy feel. the shrimps were done just so to give that exquisite shrim flavor that reminded me of my grandmoms bhaat bhaja with kuchi chingri. The spicy prawns were made with lots of chillies so that the prawns while melting put off a fire in your mouth.
After this heavenly meal we reached our hotel to see the rest of the gang having a buffet lunch and I was so glad that we were in different vehicles.