Goa rains: With milk supply hit, hotels serve black tea

PANAJI: With continuous rain for past five days cutting off road connectivity to Goa, restaurants in the state have started serving only black tea due to shortage of milk.
The state receives most of its milk from Maharashtra and Karnataka.
“We managed yesterday, but today the supply of milk got over at 4pm. So, we had to serve customers black tea, black coffee and black Nescafe,” Saurabh Dhuri, owner of Cafe Tato, told TOI.
“The situation is still dicey. I don’t see it improving on Friday,” another restaurateur said.
Meanwhile, vegetarian restaurants resisted shutting shop on Thursday, procuring whatever vegetables they can lay their hands on at inflated prices, and altering their menus to serve what is available in the markets.
“We have dropped some items and added more which have an onion gravy base and require fewer vegetables, such as pulses and patal bhaji,” Dhuri said.
Preempting the shortage, Cafe Tato procured double the stock on Wednesday and sent out its staff on Thursday to pick up whatever vegetables were available in the market.
The situation is bleak at Navtara vegetarian restaurant as well. “We didn’t want to shut the restaurant, so we struck some items of the menu and have kept only a few. We are managing somehow,” the manager said.
Some restaurants had to battle not only the short supply of ingredients but also the rainwater entering their restaurants. Kamat vegetarian restaurant had to be shut on Wednesday after they were flooded.
“We were able to run the restaurant on Thursday, but the water level is rising. We procured tomatoes at Rs 80 a dozen, but we may have to shut again as water is rising,” the supervisor said.