26 August, 2001

In fact, Goa has recently witnessed a spurt of restaurants offering innovative cuisine. There's Jamshed Madon and Ayesha Billimoria's J & A's Little Italy, a delightful little eatery offering out of this world food - including Carpaccio and plump slices of tangy lemon cake - on the banks of the river Baga. This young couple left Mumbai a few years ago because "we wanted to be close to nature", as Ayesha says. This former freelance journalist and her ex-merchant navy husband admit that they will find it nearly impossible to trade the "clean and green of Goa" for anything else. But while Goa has marked a change of pace for the couple, they rush to assure you they work equally hard to make Little Italy a success. "It's not as if we're having a holiday here. We could have run a restaurant for much more money in Mumbai, but it would have been a trade-off in terms of lifestyle, and we're not prepared to make that compromise" explains Jamshed. So its whipping up delicacy after Italian delicacy for their restaurant clientele, in a setting everyone calls paradise.

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