Karnataka Tours and Travel

Introduction
The culinary fare offered by Karnataka is quite varied with each region of the state having its own unique flavors. Many factors and influences have contributed to enrich this culinary heritage. Karnataka is also known as the coffee-bowl of India. It is the spice country which produces the best cardamoms, fondly called the queen of spices or gold and black pepper.

Influences
Though there are many similarities between the food of Karnataka and its southern neighbors, the typical Mysore cuisine is well known for its own distinctive textural forms and flavor—the dishes complementing and balancing each other.

As one goes north within the state, the food begins to resemble that of Maharashtra. The cuisine of coastal Karnataka has similarities with the food of Kerala. There is, in fact, a large amount of correspondence in the food of the four southern states of Karnataka. Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. But there are subtle distinctions and recognizable differences in flavor. The Karnataka food on the whole is less hot than that of Andhra, and the Kannada housewife uses more of lentils and coconuts than her Tamil sister.

Staples Food
Karnataka's culinary culture revolves round three staple items – rice, ragi and jowar. However, the people in the northern districts have a preference for wheat and jowar rotis (unleavened bread made of millet) eaten with spiced vegetable preparations. In rural Karnataka, ragi is widely used with each meal. This staple grain is steam cooked and rolled into balls the size of cricket balls and served with hot chutney or huli (a cousin of sambhar).

The Kodavas or Coorgis, who are culturally quite different from the rest of the state, have an equally distinct cuisine. They are perhaps the only Hindus who serve non-vegetarian food and alcoholic drinks for their marriage ceremonies and traditional festivities. Most of the Coorgi curries—noted for their flavor and taste—are coconut based, lightly spiced and moderately sour.

The coastal cuisine of Karnataka is as delightful as that of Coorg. Fish and seafood are available in plenty and since the majority are fisher-folk, the cuisine is simple, yet flavorsome.

Coconut is widely used in Mangalore cuisine— its oil as the cooking medium, its gratings or milk for curries. Meat cooked in coconut milk lends a special taste typical to Mangalorean cuisine. Local vegetables are used for a wide variety of preparations and for chutneys, even the skins of the vegetables are used. Most of the gravy dishes are accompanied by kori roti—dry broken pieces of dosa or the handkerchief soft neer dosa, so called because the unfermented batter is of watery consistency. Sana idlis fermented in toddy are yet another popular accompaniment for most of the gravy items

Methods
South Indian cuisine exploits the natural affinity between rice, coconut, and jaggery. Another combination is that of urad dal and rice, which is used for the idlis, dosas and the various kinds of hoygadubus.

The non-vegetarian meal in Karnataka consists of meat and fish. Cooking meat is a simple art in Karnataka, quite unlike that in north India or Hyderabad. The Mangalore coast specializes in varieties of seafood, which are prepared in much the same way as in the rest of the coastal areas.

There are also sub-regional variations. The cooking medium in the coastal strip is the coconut oil. In the plateau it is sesame or groundnut oil. The bhakri meal of the northern Karnataka, based on jowar, is very different. So is the ragi meal of the rural areas of old Mysore.

Specialties and Sweets
A typical Karnataka meal has many delicacies like Kosambari, a salad made of the broken halves of the soaked green moong dal (lentil) minus its skin, spiced with salt, green chili and mustard seed (oggarane) and mixed with tiny scrapings of coconut, cucumber and carrot and dressed with a little lime juice. Then there are the playas which are vegetables steamed or boiled to retain the original color and flavor. Sometimes, huli is replaced with a milder kootu. Tamarind is taboo for kootu, which is spiced with lots of pepper, cumin seeds and ground coconut. Also, no Kannada meal is complete without saaru—a clear pepper broth.

Other popular Karnataka specialties are bisi bele huli anna, which is created out of rice, dal, tamarind, chili powder, and cinnamon, the gojju—a vegetable, most popularly bitter gourd, cooked in tamarind juice and jaggery with chili powder in it, chitranna—rice with the juice of lime, green chili and turmeric powder and sprinkled with fried groundnuts and coriander leaves, and Majjige huli with tovve which has vegetables in a buttermilk base.

Breakfast foods in Karnataka include the popular uppittu (upma in Tamil) made of roasted semolina and laced with chilies, coriander leaves, mustard and jeera (cumin seed). Karnataka's exclusive dosa, served in some restaurants catering to the middle class is the famous set or a pile of four dosas served on a banana leaf, and topped with coconut chutney, potatoes, and two small pats of butter.

Kesari bhath (a halwa made of semolina, sugar, and saffron), chiroti and Mysore pak are among the favorite sweets in Karnataka. But the piece de resistance is the obbattu or holigea—flat, thin, wafer-like chappati filled with a mixture of jaggery, coconut and sugar and fried gently on a skillet. Along with payasa (south Indian kheer), obbattu is always served with celebratory meals in Karnataka. Other delectable sweets that come out of the Kannada kitchen are the shavige payasa made of vermicelli and sugar, hesaru bele made with green gram dal, and baadami hallu, which is, crushed almonds mixed with milk, sugar and saffron.

Special Occasions
Potha Parban is a day given to feasting on homemade sweets, pancakes and puffed rice. Instead of the daily fare of rice and fish curry, the rice harvest is made festive with the addition of jaggery syrup, coconut candy and condiments, to create a variety of recipes for this day. Platefuls of specialties are exchanged between neighbors, relatives and sent as gift hampers to in-laws

Eating Out
Many famous local eateries and restaurants in various towns of the state serve coastal Karnataka, Coorgi and Mangalorean specialties. An important contribution of the state are the Udipi restaurants spread all over the country. Named after a place in the state, the Udipi outlets serve authentic Kannada vegetarian cuisine.