Before the idea of starting Edible Archives knocked on Anumitra Ghosh Dastidar’s (Delhi home) door, the passion for indigenous ingredients had long since been residing inside. The space was filled with fridges stocked with different kinds of dry fish and jars upon jars containing numerous varieties of indigenous rice sourced from across India, right from the Sundarbans up to Tamil Nadu’s Thanjavur, to Northeast India.

Within the 2BHK space, Anumitra (44) says, her bed was probably the only decor asset; the rest was a living archive of culinary memorabilia. 

“At any given time, I’d have around 10 varieties of dried fish, six to seven varieties of murmura(puffed rice), two to three types of ghee, and seven to eight types of oil. I believed diverse food was important. These days, most people end up consuming just 10-12 ingredients in a whole week,” she reasons. 

Today, that craze for ingredients has manifested itself into Edible Archives, a restaurant cocooned by Goa’s slow pace of life. Anumitra and Shalini Krishan (the other half of the duo behind Edible Archives) see the initiative as one that’s assuring heritage ingredients their long-overdue redemption. 

Recalling how the seeds of the idea were sown in 2017 at a party, Anumitra shares, “I was talking about my obsession of working with indigenous rice, and Anita Dube, the curator of Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2018, overheard me. She wanted to know more. With help from Shalini and a few other friends, we wrote a proposal titled ‘Edible Archives’ and sent it in.” 

The project was selected to showcase at the upcoming Biennale. And that’s the story of how Edible Archives was born, an initiative that’s thrilling Goa with its whimsical culinary creations. 

Everything on the menu at Edible Archives — the restaurant is housed within a century-old home in Assagao; its rust-tiled........

© The Better India