Fish Buffet at Coffee Heaven

4:30am, I await Derk to open the gate to coffee heaven.
I park my scooter inside the gate and hop on the back of his. The morning is very chili and I am wearing all the layers I could find. Dirk is a 36 year old German that has discovered India 10 years back, and 3 years ago has moved to Goa with his girlfriend Diana to open a café, a place that serves all German baked goods, and his famous smoked fish.

Thursday night is the special fish night buffet. Dirk leaves early morning to go to the fish market in Panjim. It’s the main one, where the market is on the dock right by the fishermen’s boats. It’s still dark when we arrive, just a bit of light over the baskets of fish shrimp and squid that were just swimming happily a few minutes ago.
Dirk comes from Hamburg, a city of docks and fresh fish, grew up in a house that had veggies in the back yard and smoked their own fish.
Checking under the guilds to make sure the fish is really fresh, looking for that redness, for the clear eyes, we choose some king fish which is the most available in Goa, we buy some shrimp, calamari, snappers and the mystery fish. The mystery fish is one that we both don’t know by name, one that is very rare to find, but has such a beautiful meaty taste on the grill (sorry, my veggie friends), that dirk is willing to pay triple the snapper price.

We tie the bags of fresh sea life to the bike between Dirks legs and head home. As we drive back, the sky is red with the big sun rising over the rice fields. Some low fog, like a blanket of white clouds floats low on the fields adding to the magical feel. Birds are waking up, the hum of the old scooter’s rotating engine and Derks voice telling me about his philosophy of life. No helmets jackets or gloves in this part of Goa, so the air, sound and surrounding penetrate deeply within.

I leave Dirk to do the cleaning on his own as I rush to my Yoga practice with Rolf and Marci,

In the evening, many arrive to coffee heaven. Simple chairs with natural wooden tables stand on the earth amongst the trees. The buffet offers many vegetarian offers and some of their fantastic dark German bread.
Dirk believes in grilling the fish simple, only a brush of oil. The sauces are aside, and one can choose which to use on which fish.

Coffee Heaven runs as a simple family place, with many regular costumers, especially German. The couple like many westerners in Goa, aim for 6 months of hard work, and 6 months of living in the west.
Goa offers today amazing business opportunities. As such even Diana and Dirk thought of upgrading to a more serious restaurant in a better location and getting another chef to run the show (me). For now I said goodbye nicely as I head over to practice more Yoga in Mysore.