Gadbad. (गड़बड़)(hindi): – mess, disarray, mishmash.
Years ago, in the weeks following my Dad’s demise, I needed to spend a considerable amount of time in Goa to sort out his affairs.
It was somewhere during that period, on an oppressively hot afternoon in May, that we chanced upon a small hole-in-the-wall eatery just outside Mapuca market. Beginning with a few beers the meal moved on to the usual assortment of savouries, including beef patties, goa sausage rolls and fish croquets.
Once done with the initial snacks, it was time for a nice cooling dessert.
Dominating the menu blackboard in bold and invitingly cryptic multicoloured chalk capitals was the following item:
‘GADBAD’
Intrigued by the name and more out of curiosity than hunger, we placed a very tentative order for one. Contrary to its visual appearance – (that, let me tell you, totally lived up to its name) – it turned out to be surprisingly delicious. So much so that we went on to order several more rounds.
Sadly, the eatery has since shut down. What is even more distressing is the fact that, much as I have tried, I have never been able to get my hands on that particular dessert ever again.
Till yesterday.
I had taken my daughter out to lunch at the Powai branch of the Sodawaterbottleopenerwalla Restaurant and was thrilled to find ‘Gadbad’ on the menu.
The dish is basically a mixture of scoops of assorted flavours of ice cream, cubes of jelly, chopped cashew nuts, jujubes and chunks of cake all layered haphazardly in one delicious hotchpotch in a tall glass.
This Sunday afternoon I decided to recreate that magical dessert for lunch – with a few embellishments of my own!
To the original recipe I added:
-Candied orange peel soaked in Drambue,
-and swirled each glass with a dash of Blue Curacao!
Below is the image of my concoction. It may be not be as elaborate-looking as the one at the restaurant, but it was every bit as delicious, (especially with the personal extras and even if I say so myself).
All that remained to be done was to settle into a long Sunday afternoon snooze.
Ahhh….heaven!
