Both Guadalajara branches of the restaurant Goa, one a half block from Avenida Chapultepec and the other in the slightly more outlying Jardines del Bosque area, are fairly well established in this city.
But it wasn’t long ago — just about 10 years — that Indian cooking, known for its plethora of spicy, sometimes hot, sauces and its tendency toward vegetarianism — was virtually unknown here.
That started to change when Vijay Chaudhary, originally from the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, made his way to Mexico after finishing four-years of higher education in Lucerne, Switzerland, which included study of hotel management and a wide array of cuisines. Soon, in 2006, Chaudhary joined forces with another Indian who had been a classmate in Switzerland, Raj Singh, a native of Uttarakhand state.
The two founded Goa on Avenida Lopez Cotilla in Guadalajara, not far from the U.S. Consulate. Goa was virtually the first Indian restaurant in town, other than an earlier one in upscale Colonia Providencia, which had closed after doing business for just a year.
The partners designed a menu that aimed to be authentically Indian while still appealing to Mexican tastes. But they included a number of vegetarian dishes, a marked departure from Mexico’s meat-focused cuisine. During those first years in business, Singh also founded and established the menu of a second local Indian restaurant, although he later separated from it
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