Emma Diniz Ryan
emmadinizr...@gmail.com
When I began sharing recipes in various Goan facebook groups
during lockdown, I had no concept of the scale or reach of
the online Goan community. As most of my readers know by
now, I am half Goan but my only connection to Goa thus far
has been through my late grandmother's cooking and memories
from Goan Christmas feasts as a child.
This was of course until last year when I began to
learn more about Goan cuisine and started sharing
my recipes, illustrations and food writing on
social media. As a result, over the past 18 months
I have been introduced to dozens of members of the
Goan diaspora through the sheer power of the internet.
One such serendipitous encounter took place over the summer
when I was invited by Goan journalist Frederick Noronha to be
an interview guest on his YouTube series BrieFNcounters.
Frederick and I chatted all about my upbringing, my interest
in Goan cuisine and my plans to conduct a research trip to
Goa next year before writing my own Goan cookbook.
Our conversation caught the attention of Frederick's good
friend Mervyn Maciel, a fellow Goan and a former member of
the Kenyan civil service who now lives in leafy Sutton, a
mere 20 minute train ride from myself. Mervyn reached out to
me via email, telling me that his late wife Elsie had written
a Goan cookbook in the 80s and offering me a copy for my own
research and perusal. He kindly shared a PDF version of
Elsie's Goan Cookery Book with me, and from there our online
correspondence blossomed.
I began to cook from Elsie's book, sharing pictures of my
creations with Mervyn, as he recounted tales from their 68
years together. Her sardine curry, later warmed up as kalchi
kodi ("yesterday's curry") became a firm favourite in my
household, and having tried many Goan fish curry recipes
myself, Elsie's remains unparalleled in its flavour.
Mervyn and I discussed meeting up to share a kalchi
kodi together and cement the new friendship we had
forged over email. After four months of chatting
back and forth until the coast was clear for a
Covid-safe meet up, Mervyn and I eventually
arranged our visit, and last Thursday, I made my
way to his humble abode to meet my friend in
person.
Meeting Mervyn was like catching up with an old friend,
despite this being our first meeting. He warmly welcomed me
into his home, or 'Manyatta' (Swahili for Masai Hut) as he
and Elsie named it, a nod to their years in Africa.
The walls of Mervyn's home tell so many stories, many of
which we had discussed briefly in our emails but which I
couldn't wait to hear in detail now that I was able to meet
him properly. Black and white canvases of his career in
Kenya's Northern Frontier show a young man in his 20s
surrounded by African tribesmen, whose children Mervyn fondly
tells me he is still in regular contact with.
Photographs on the fridge of Mervyn being gleefully greeted
by Prince Charles at a luncheon, and with his daughter Josey
at a garden party hosted by the Queen at Buckingham Palace
show that Mervyn was quite a big deal back in the day, and
still is by all accounts.
Mervyn's house is full of beautiful pottery, and I soon
discovered that every item of ornate crockery was made by
Elsie herself, one of her many talents. Before we sit to
enjoy our lunch, Mervyn shows me bowls, plates, mugs, ceramic
leaves and a pair of clay pigs that Elsie crafted herself,
all self taught.
As we sit down to chat, I ask Mervyn to tell me more about
himself and Elsie and as he begins recounting stories about
their life together, I can tell how much he misses her.
Mervyn was sadly orphaned at the age of 12, first losing his
mother in childbirth and then his father, stepmother and step
siblings during a ship torpedo attack in the Second World
War, a fact I learned in a fascinating interview he shared
with me, between himself and well known Goan Marius
Fernandes.
Elsie was born in Goa but grew up in the Kenyan highlands
where she lived with her family until meeting Mervyn when he
was 23 and she was 18. They married shortly thereafter in
1953, having two daughters and three sons, one of whom,
Conrad, passed away in infancy.
They moved to Kenya's Northern Front District for Mervyn's
job, where he first worked with the Provincial Administration
and then for the Ministry of Agriculture. During one of
Mervyn's posts at a wheat research plant in Njoro, Elsie was
able to experiment with bread making, a skill she had picked
up in adolescence and later perfected to such an extent that
she was invited to give bread making demonstrations at a
local high school later in life in the UK.
Changes to his post with the Kenyan Government brought Mervyn
and Elsie to the UK in 1966 and they settled into suburban
Sutton which would become their forever home. Here they
raised their four children and Elsie began to explore a
variety of crafts and hobbies, all of which she excelled at.
While Mervyn prepares me a delicious lentil soup laced with
Elsie's "soup spice mix", he shows me the area in the kitchen
where she would fold hundreds of samosas for friends and
family who eagerly lined up to order them for special
occasions, such was their high demand.
Not stopping there, Elsie began her own Goan pickle
business from their home kitchen, making a
staggering 27 different varieties including Bombay
duck, date and walnut, tendli and mango. Elsie was
also a proficient baker and seamstress, not only
making brandy laden fruit cake, but also an ornate
three tier vegan cake for their daughters' joint
wedding.
For this same wedding, Elsie designed and made both
daughters' wedding dresses as well as her own outfit. In
disbelief as Mervyn is telling me all this, he also shows me
jumpers and waistcoats she knitted for him, which I couldn't
believe weren't made by a professional.
Despite not having a car, Mervyn and Elsie spent their
weekends carrying suitcases full of produce and travelling by
bus to display their goods at local fairs and schools. For
10 years they belonged to the Nonsuch Craft Group, showcasing
Elsie's pickles, jams, cakes, pottery and Mervyn's marmalade
at Bourne Hall in Ewell.
As Mervyn and I are now tucking into our fish curry and Goan
sausage patties, with a side of his own homemade chilli
sauce, he lets me sift through a large leather-bound photo
album. I can see for myself pages and pages of Elsie's
creations; teddy bears, rag dolls, vases, bridesmaids
dresses.
There seems to have been nothing that Elsie could not turn
her hand to. But as Mervyn tells me, despite her many
talents, she was incredibly humble and created beautiful
crafts and homemade delicacies for others without expecting
any recognition. I only wish I could have had the chance to
meet her, though Mervyn paints a wonderful picture.
In 1983, Elsie published her Goan Cookery Book, the
first of its kind in the UK, and despite having a
slow start, it eventually went into three reprints
before selling out.
[https://archive.org/details/GoanCookeryBook]
The recipes in Elsie's book are fantastic and easy to follow
even for a novice cook new to Goan flavours. Her curry
powder which is the base ingredient in many of her recipes is
a perfect balance of spices which taste distinctly Goan, and
since making a batch myself, I now always have a jar of it in
my cupboard.
Mervyn tells me that it wasn't long before Elsie's culinary
talent caught the attention of people in high places. In the
80s her book was given a glowing review by Pat Chapman, owner
of The Curry Club of Britain, an organisation which
unfortunately no longer exists, despite mine and Mervyn's
attempts to track it down. Mr Chapman who incidentally used
to organise culinary trips to Goa, invited Elsie and Mervyn
to his establishment in Covent Garden and was so taken by
Elsie's pickles that they were included in the Curry Club's
Christmas hampers.
Word of Elsie's book and delicious pickles
travelled fast and in the early 90s, the BBC
production team working on Madhur Jaffrey's
television series wrote to Elsie expressing an
interest in learning about her Goan cooking. In
typical hospitable Goan fashion, Mervyn and Elsie
invited the producer round for lunch, and Elsie
happily shared with them her culinary secrets.
As Mervyn tells me, Elsie was not secretive with her recipes
and was always more than willing to share her knowledge with
others. It was around the same time that Sharwoods
approached Elsie to learn about home style and festive Goan
cooking. Once again, invited round for a meal, the lady from
Sharwoods was so impressed with Elsie’s pickles that she
ended up buying a huge case of them to take home with her,
alongside tips and tricks from Elsie on how to make the
perfect pickle.
With our meal, Mervyn and I toast to finally meeting, taking
a sip of a vintage elderflower wine he and Elsie brewed in
2008. Wine making was one of the hobbies they enjoyed
together, having made 10 different varieties from fruits and
flowers picked from hedgerows in their garden.
On top of this, they spent many years tending to an allotment
and growing their own organic vegetables. It will come as no
surprise that Mervyn doesn't sit idly or waste his time, and
he comes across as an incredibly positive person. Seldom do
you meet someone that you want to emulate in your own life,
but Mervyn is just that. At 92, he seems to have the energy
and vigour of someone decades younger, and despite
experiencing such a loss in his life so recently, he is
remarkably stoic.
As we finish up our meal and retire with a cup of
tea and some of his homemade peppermint sweets,
Mervyn and I chat a little more about his own
pursuits. He tells me about his singing and his
plans to release a CD of old favourites, the second
he has put together with the help of a couple of
friends. He shows me two books he has written;
Bwana Karani written in 1985, a memoir of his time
[https://archive.org/details/bwana-karani] in
Africa and From Mtoto to Mzee in 2014 in which he
talks more about later life in the UK and in
retirement with Elsie. We discuss his desire to
write about Elsie and her pottery, and if I know
anything about Mervyn in this short time, he
certainly will.
As I prepare to leave Mervyn's home, with eight varieties of
pickles he made especially for my visit, he asks me to sign
his visitors book which I do gladly. As I flick through it,
I see hundreds of entries from everyone who has been a guest
at Mervyn and Elsie's home, going all the way back to the
early 60s.
It doesn't surprise me at all to see how many people they
have welcomed into their house for a meal or a cup of tea, or
to see how gushing the messages are about their kindness and
hospitality. My visit with Mervyn was a wholly positive
experience and I very much look forward to the next one. As
I sat at home that evening enjoying all of the food I was
sent home with, I vowed to be a little more like Mervyn and
Elsie in their zest for trying new things in life.
Elsie sadly passed away at the start of the pandemic on April
10, 2020, and since then Mervyn has been very much keeping
her memory alive. In conjunction with CAFOD, the Catholic
Agency for Overseas Development, Mervyn has set up a fund in
Elsie's name in order to raise donations for her favourite
causes and I hope that in writing about our visit, I can
point some of you in the direction of her memorial page:
https://tinyurl.com/yglkfj5a
Despite Elsie's Goan cookbook no longer being available for
purchase, It would be remiss of me not to share one of her
recipes, so I leave you with Elsie's delicious Caldine
recipe, a Goan staple which I hope will be a good
introduction into Goan flavours for those of you
who are new to the cuisine: Base for Curry:2
dessertspoons vegetable oil1 large onion - sliced1
piece of ginger - 1 inch crushed1/2 tsp ground black
pepper1/2 tsp ground cumin1 tsp turmeric1 tsp salt1
green chilli - sliced2 dessertspoons creamed coconut2
dessertspoons vinegar1/2 pint water1 dessertspoon
tamarind pasteVegetables of your choice: okra,
cauliflower, cabbageMethod:Heat oil in a large pan
and fry onion until golden brown, reduce heat and
cook slowly, gradually adding all the ingredients
(water and tamarind last). Bring to the boil and at
this stage add the vegetables until tender.
See Elsie's book here (free download):
https://archive.org/details/GoanCookeryBook
https://yesterdayscurry.substack.com/p/my-day-with-mervyn?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=
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