From the teaser: http://leatherpotato.com/2023/10/05/coming-next-the-goan-connection/

Food – the story of our life. Well, at least in this part of the world, it is. I was with my cousin, Chris (as in Christopher) on one of our usual meet ups for coffee when he mentioned that he was having lunch in P. J. with one of our relatives the next day, and asked if I would like to join him. The relative was William Jacques. I immediately accepted. As Jeannie was on leave from work that day, she would be joining us for lunch; too.

Why relative? It’s a long story, so here goes: My mother’s father (my grandfather), married twice. From his first wife, he has three children; one of them being William’s grandmother. After his first wife died due to illness; my grandfather remarried again. My grandfather had 14 children from his second marriage. My mother was the third youngest in the total of 17 children. My mother and William’s grandmother are half-sisters. That makes my grandfather William’s great-grandfather. This means that William’s mother is my first cousin; and William and my daughter Laura; as second-cousins.

As for that very common term “cousin brother” one would hear so often in Malaysia to describe or refer to a relative; I have not the faintest idea how to apply it. One would think your cousin’s brother is also your cousin. While it may seem too deep for even me to comprehend; Malaysians use this term so often to describe how they are connected to a particular relative or relatives. And, everybody seems to understand and know what they are talking about. Well, almost everybody. I am one of the few that don’t. So, I will stick to the little I know in family / relative descriptive connections which is the paragraph before this.

When we met at Kanna Curry House in P.J.; William was happily surprised and we greeted each other with a big hug. It has been many years between the last time we met and now. It was really good to meet in person. William has become quite the celebrity chef of sorts particularly for Goan cuisine. The Gomes (my mother’s maiden name) family are Goans, as my grandparents emigrated from Goa and settled in Malaysia (It was Malaya at that time in the early 1900s).

It was my first time at Kanna Curry House. Having heard some good reviews about this restaurant that serves Indian food on banana leaves; I was looking forward to our lunch here. The banana leaf acts as a disposable plate and it in itself is not consumed.

As we sat at the table, the banana leaves were placed in front of us. Then, rice and the usual vegetables and other condiments were placed around or on the rice. My banana leave was minus the rice as I stopped eating rice since November 2007. Whatever was served, looked good. Then, waiters came around with large serving trays. On those trays, had little dishes of different vegetables, meats like mutton and chicken, etc; all served “dim sum” (1) style. This was the first time I had seen an Indian restaurant serving a very wide variety of dishes on display in this way. A unique experience, indeed. Normally, you would have to go to the main food counter and choose whichever types of dishes you wanted.

We had a really good time catching up on family stories and the past. Jeannie knew William and his sisters, Rachel and Valerie because they were parishioners of St. Thomas Church in Kuantan, many years ago, when they were school students. So, it was a good catch up, not “ketchup” (though commonly pronounced this way for many people) for William and her, too.

William said that he would arrange lunch so that the rest of the family could meet as well. We soon got an invite for lunch at his family home from him.

It was the Sunday after our lunch at Kanna Curry House, that we met with William and his family. It was a really good reunion of sorts, as the last get together was around 6 years ago. A good reunion for our children, the younger generation, too.

We brought each other up to speed as to our daily lives. The best part was we were totally relaxed.

Before long, we were seated at the table, the younger generation at the round table, and we, the slightly older generation, at the dining table.

This was a Goan lunch, authentic in every way. I am no authority on Goan food, but it looked absolutely fabulous. William and his sisters, Valerie and Rachel; are awesome cooks. They are sticklers to making sure ingredients meet to their high standards. William, who is the chef for Goan food, caters for parties and business lunches and dinners. He prides himself to ensure the food are to his highest standards. So, if you are looking at hosting a party, lunch or dinner with Goan food in mind, Chef William Jacques is the person to look out for.

The food was the centre of attraction. I know, I know. It was definitely the centre of attraction, because we were all surrounding it.

Though my mother is Goan, we rarely got to have Goan food at home. However, we had lots and lots of the wide variety of Malaysian and Asian food; and at times, western cuisine, when growing up.

I have not spent enough time with Goan food to learn the names of each of the dishes. There was a mix of meats, vegetables and a fruit dish. The fruit dish was small unripe mangoes that sort of added to the sense of taste, something that compliments the various dishes. I will learn the names of the dishes and how best to describe them in Goan, from William.

The time was centred on getting up to speed with the going-ons in our lives. The younger generation, at the next table, were doing fine by themselves. Brandon, Darrel and Erika are William’s and Elsa’s children, while the “other” Brandon is Chris’ and Evelina’s son. And so the story of the “Two Brandons” goes like this:

The Gomes family (My mother and her family) is so large with at one time, 5 generations living. Chris and Evelina were having a tough time choosing a name for their child about to be born. They wanted a name that was not taken yet. Finally, they decided on “Brandon” – not taken yet. On the other side, William and Elsa chose “Brandon” for the same reason – not taken yet. Then, Brandon was born. I am not too sure if they were on the same date, but both Brandon(s) have the same spelling and are 26 year old.

More pictures of the amazing spread of Goan cuisine.

After the delicious meal… Well, what comes after it? Why…more food of course – dessert. The dessert was another spread, which in itself, was a full meal. The dessert was a variety of Goan, local and western sweets. While on the subject of desserts: Rachel makes super fantastically delicious pineapple jam tarts. The last time we tasted some of her pineapple jam tarts was at Christmas, which was a very long time ago. I wonder if this Christmas….😉😁😁

We all had a wonderful time with the Jacques family. A meal where 3 generations of Gomes – connected cousins, 2nd cousins (I did not say 2nd cousin brother… Funny, you never hear of 2nd cousin sister, at least I have not heard of it) relatives met after a long time. Looking forward to the next…

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AN UPDATE TO THE ARTICLE
“Beautifully written. My son is Brandon and Chris’ son is Brendan.”
“The meaning of cousin brother or sister is a very Indian discription. If the cousin is male he is COUSIN BROTHER but if she is female, the COUSIN SISTER. Doesn’t matter if they are 1st, 2nd or 3rd cousins.”
~ William Jacques, October 8th, 2023

NOTES:
1. Dim sum is a traditional Chinese meal made up of small plates of dumplings and other snack dishes and is usually accompanied by tea. Similar to the way that the Spanish eat tapas, the dishes are shared among family and friends. http://www.asiasociety.org