Udupi, my wonderland
June 12, 2007Whenever I think of a peaceful place to be in, the only name that comes to my mind is Udupi. For those who haven’t heard the name can skip this blog or do your Google research and come back. I have been fortunate enough to spend two years of my school life in this town. My cousin V wrote about the mouthwatering Udupi saaru (loosely translated to spicy watery daal) in her blog and it brought back memories of my childhood in the land of Krishna. I don’t usually write lengthy stuff in this space but I may get carried away today.
On a typical day, I used to wake up in the morning and get ready to go school. I took the “school auto” to get to my Mukundakripa school, just behind the Krishna Mutta. At times, someone or the other in my neighbourhood used to drop me. Some of Kitta mama’s friends also used to take me to school and I used to look forward to these coz a bar of chocolate was an assured benefit then. Sometimes Sulla aunty’s husband whom we all used to call Bhavaji used to pick me up from school. He used to get me cup cakes from Sudarshan Bakery near Town Police Station or the other one (I forget the name) near the City Bus Stand. I used to sit on his cycle and he used to push it with one hand on the handle and the other one on the carrier.
Sulla aunty was really funny… she had a pair of big buck tooth coming out of her thin mouth. She made her living making happala (paapad) in our front yard and that was one of the many things I enjoyed watching. She and Bhavaji normally used to keep a couple of spare ladles and wooden planks, just in case one of the neighbours passed by and wanted to roll out a few happalagalu. No prizes for guessing who used to run to grab a ladle and start making weird shaped happalas. Now, Sulla aunty used to make guliges — happala dough cut into small cube sized pieces. In the process of making happalas I used to gobble up the tasty coconut oil soaked guliges. It was okay when they were making uddina happala — meaning urad dal paapad. But things got tricky while making the spicy red chilli happala. Invariably I would have a tummy upset and get blasted from my doddamma — my grandmum. Sulla aunty and bhava were given strict instructions not to encourage me. I wish I could go back to those days now.
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Unless one is used to the cocount oil dishes, they repel you. Am still to get over those dishes with coconut oil..dont know about other users..
Udupi is a great place but getting polluted due to non stop visitors off late. This place houses one of the few nurserys which grow herbs and export too. Most ayurvedic herbs which are dying can be found here. I respect those nurserys which are providing stable medicine to many millions and removing us fromt he clutches of MNC’s.
UDUPI…
the very name conjures up a beautiful mosaic of sights and fragrances..
krishnana darshaNa.. my aaradhya devathe…!!,ananteshwarana darshana,
chandramowleeshwarana darshana
chowki uta…, 🙂
ratha beedhi…
rathagaLa eLiyodu,
patakhigaLa harisodu,
raayara mutta,
madhva sarovara snaana,
airodi’s utensil shop,
mallige hoovina suvaasane..
nayana manohara tarkaari angadigaLu,
mitra samaajada goLibajjigalu,
woodlands hotelina special ice-cream….
innu eneno…
all lovely.
I can never come back satisfied from that place.
Mohan, Coconut oil based food is heavenly food for me. I can’t understand how anyone can detest it. But yes, I hate mustard oil based stuff and fans of mustard-oil based food maybe saying the same thing about me!!!
Neela, yes, the list is endless. I shall try and cover most of them one by one as and how my brain springs up these memories. There is nothing that brings joy to me than the thought of Udupi Krishna.
Tata
Until the age of 15, all south Indian food was about idlis and dosas. Blame the Udupi restaurants in Bombay for that! Now I know that you also have vadas and… ummm… ummm…. ok.. i still only eat south Indian at Udupi restaurants… 🙂
Su,
See the difference of people tastes based on what they grew up…. 🙂
Su….I want to eat GoLi Baje right now! You are so making me feel J about Udupi….Coconut oil food….some dishes taste heavenly….and yet others are really lethal……had a taste of the lethal stuff recently in Kukke Subramanya…..
Vani,
In Kukke some thing lethal? I dont believe this – what happened.
Mohan,
it was Uppit prepared with coconut oil seasoning! Good Lord! I cant even think of it without my stomach churning once !
🙂 I understand. Once we prepared idlis and put it on the hot bus engine and opened the packets to eat….. i can still feel the smell.
Yes Vani, Goli Baje in Mithra Samaja is good fun. Can’t get over Diana Falooda and cutlets too. I don’t like Kedyoor stuff though. Don’t know how it is now. There is a new place called Dwarka (years ago it was new) next to the Mutta that serves decent stuff in Udupi. I think I am obsessed with food. A direct result of Udupi cuisine!!
Udupi !!! I can go on and on. But now that Su has already started i better keep it short 😉
During our schooling days, I visited Udupi every each year for about 2 months to enjoy my summer vacation along with my other Bangalore cousins. We would get up early, bath and then go to Krishna Mutt for a quick darshan. Breakfast would be Ganji oota with maavina midi uppinakaayi and ghee. Ummm, i may have to stop mid-way as my mouth’s watering
😉 Our grandfather was a retired school headmaster. He would give us good amount of homework to be completed before lunch. Once the homework was done, we would be served a full course meal which was followed by many many home grown mangoes. We would try hard to limit our rice intake to keep sufficient disk space for Mangoes. However with the kind of yummy cuisines that our grandmom prepared this was a hard task to be accomplished. An afternoon nap was inevitable, what with the tasty lunch munched. Around 4 we would be given a glass of tea with buns from Sudarshan bakery. This would be followed by cricket or an occassional visit to Malpe Beach. Then kittu mama would be back from work and would take us to Mitra Samaja for gollibajjes and cold badam milk. If this was not enough, we would again come back and eat a full course dinner. And before falling asleep, it was mandatory that we force our grandma to tell us yet another ghost story. Wow, i wish we had a day to revisit those times.
hai su June 15th
Nice to read about UDIPI SRI KRISHNA. I too remember my childhood days always. Especially chowki oota. Those days , there were 20 – 30 varities of dishes . Once I had gone on akshaya thritheeya day ,I sat at 11 am and got up from there at 3 pm. There were 50 varities. su, neenu heege baritha iru. dwadashi dina mado kai ganji, bellada gojju, gojjambade aase agathe. luckily namage madakke barathe.
Lovely post Niks. Those were the days…. Wish we could revist those days.
And yes Shaila aunty WE are lucky that you all know how to prepare these delicious cuisine. Truckloads of thanks to you:)
Ooooh! Chowki oota!
Niks, please arrange for some Z-grade security for your mum…..there are so many foodies out here that she may be whisked away!
Seriously, I’m with Pierre here. I’m totally lost as far as the dishes that you’ve mentioned here are concerned. Idlis, dosas and vadas were all South Indian food meant for me till, umm…the age of 10, I guess. Uttapam was a nice discovery though. Now, whenever we’re ordering out for South Indian, it’s only Uttapam for me. Then a couple of years back, thanks to a half Tamil friend of mine and another one who’s practically grown up in Chennai, I discovered the spicy pleasures of Gunpowder (I’m sorry, I don’t remember the proper Tamil name for it. Remind me when we meet me next). Yum!
Hey Jay,
Like others, even you have the impression that South Indian cuisine means Tamil dishes. While Dosa and Idlis are a south Indian preparations in general, gun powder is typically an Andhra preparation. Of course, we Kannadigas, Tamils, and Malyalees have different versions of it.
S:)