Goan home cooking classes for beach visitors

This is a small cooking school run from a clean home kitchen. Small groups of visitors spend a morning or evening learning a few Goan dishes, such as fish curry soured with kokum or tamarind, chicken xacuti and mackerel stuffed with recheado masala, then sit down to eat what they cooked.

South Goa draws visitors to quieter beaches like Colva, Benaulim and Palolem, and Goan food is part of what brings many of them. Margao, the district's market town, has busy fish, vegetable and spice stalls, so a guided shopping walk before class is easy to add and makes the morning feel special. Coconut, one of the district's main crops, goes into most of these curries.

You need a kitchen with enough burners and counter space for a small group, and FSSAI food registration. Ask the Goa Tourism Department whether your class also needs to be registered with them. The hard part is being found. Tourists book through review sites and hotel desks, so your first reviews matter a lot. Bookings also fall in the monsoon, when fewer visitors come.

List your class on travel booking websites, and leave cards with homestays, guesthouses and small hotels near the beaches, whose guests often ask them for things to do.