Kitchens in Goa

A Goan kitchen is rarely a showroom. Fish is fried, masala is roasted, a pressure cooker whistles twice a day and a pot of rice steams on the back burner. Many houses keep a second, simpler kitchen or a wash area behind the main one, with a door that opens onto the yard, the well or the drying line. That back door stands open for air most of the day — which is also how flies, mosquitoes, the odd lizard and the neighbour's cat come in.

All of that changes what works. Fabric near a gas flame is a fire risk, not a style choice. Anything above the hob or the sink collects a fine film of oil and steam that turns sticky and then dark if it can't be wiped or washed. Through the monsoon the room barely dries, so materials that swell, peel or grow mould show it here first.

So we plan a kitchen from the hob outwards: what must be kept away from heat, what has to be wiped weekly, which openings need a net more than a curtain, and where a little softness — a café curtain, a printed cotton, a warm-toned panel — can still make it feel like part of the home.