The first thing that comes to one’s mind at the mention of Udupi is the ubiquitous masala dosa which has its origins here, and a whole school of south Indian cuisine that takes its name from this town. It is as renowned for its chefs, lip smacking cuisine, and restaurants as it is for its Krishna Temple and various mutts. This temple town also gave the world Udupi cuisine—that generic term for clean, vegetarian south Indian fast food dished out in the trademark Udupi tiffin rooms, restaurants, and cafés. With an enviable culinary repertoire, brand Udupi is so powerful that it has nearly overshadowed the other regional cuisines of south India. Today the names Udupi tiffin room or Udupi hotel have become synonymous with affordable vegetarian food.
The genesis of Udupi’s culinary traditions is subject to debate. According to some, the tradition of feeding the thousands of devotees at the famous Sri Krishna temple in Udupi led to the creation of the hotel menu. Others cite mythology to claim that the delicacies were invented by devotees to tempt Lord Krishna to stay in Udupi. The cuisine included no less than 14 different cooked delicacies each day. The same food was also served to the hordes of devotees who visited the temple throughout the year.
A typical Udupi meal
The tradition of Udupi cooking is so intertwined with the Krishna Temple that even the vegetables used are chosen according to a rigorous system laid down by priests. Religion and culinary tradition merged to produce food that was and still is fit for the gods. The food that was served there was essentially satvic and had to be cooked with several religious restrictions sans onions, garlic, and root vegetables like potatoes and even non-native vegetables like cauliflower, carrot, papaya, beetroot, tomato and radish. Vegetables such as gherkin, spinach, and drumsticks were also excluded.
The temple town has spawned countless Udupi-style vegetarian restaurants around the world. In the 1920s, several eateries mushroomed in Udupi offering simple food. The eateries first proliferated around the town and, from the corridors of the temples it spread to the bylanes of big cities. Nowadays, anybody who starts a vegetarian restaurant serving idli, dosa, vada adds the Udupi tag.
Udupi buns
K Krishna Rao, who built the iconic Woodland brand, and K Seetharama Rao, who started Dasaprakash in 1954, were pioneers who forayed into the restaurant business specialising in Udupi cuisine. In Bangalore, the renowned MTR traces its roots to the hamlet of Kota in Udupi district. MTR is more an institution than a hotel, where customers queue up at 6.00 am for a taste of the legendary breakfast. The Udupi connection lingers in the taste of their sambar and rasam. The pineapple halwa, sambar, and rasam all bear traces of that distinctive taste inspired by the rich tradition of satvic cooking as practised in the temple town.
The New Krishna Bhavan restaurant in Bengaluru has been around since 1954. “In keeping with the changing times, we have innovated. The Udupi buns, Uduppi Guliappa, and Udupi Sevagai are perennial favourites. The Open Masala Dosa comes with a generous helping of potato palya that’s topped with an even more generous serving of butter. The paper thin neer dosa served with a simple mixture of freshly ground coconut and jaggery is a dish not to be missed here. Our signature item is the Green Masala Idli. Tiny button idlis are fried in ghee and doused in a palak-based sauce,” says Suni Prabhu, a third generation entrepreneur and owner of New Krishna Bhavan.
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Green Masala Idli, a signature dish of New Krishna Bhavan
The region’s staple cereal is rice, and it assumes many forms as it is powdered dry or ground to a paste, flattened or rolled and finally cooked, fried, or steamed. Udupi’s excellent cuisine, which includes rice cakes and a wide variety of fruits, is a treat not to be missed. In keeping with coastal tradition, a variety of steamed foods form a part of Udupi cuisine as well. Apart from the staple dosa, idli, uthappam and the like, Udupi cuisine has a lot more to offer—pumpkins, gourds, jackfruit, colocasia leaves, raw green bananas, mango pickle, sambar, with ground coconut, rasam, adye (dumplings), ajadina (dry curries), and a wide variety of chutneys, including one made from the ridge gourd.
No meal is complete without salads like the kosambari, made from soaked dals mixed with grated coconut and green chillies in a mustard seasoning. Then the tambli, a summer speciality, considered the ultimate coolant. Besides the usual fare, Udupi area boasts of some special dishes like kadubu idlis (lentil and rice batter steamed in conical moulds) and goli baje, deep fried fritters of flour and curd with a smattering of chillies and ginger, served with freshly ground coconut chutney. Don’t miss the pathrode, a special dish prepared by steaming stuffed colocasia leaves. But there’s none as scrumptious as the variety of dishes fashioned around the matti gulla, a greenish brinjal that grows in the hamlet of Matti.
All pics by Susheela Nair.
Susheela Nair is an independent food, travel, and lifestyle writer and photographer contributing articles, content, and images to several national publications besides organising seminars and photo exhibitions. Her writings span a wide spectrum that also includes travel portals and guide books, brochures, and coffee table books.