Ganesha habba utsava - Part 2

So part 2 of the habba is here, and I went about accomplishing the task of heading back to the place to eat at the three remaining stalls. Well, at least one dish from each stall at least. That was until I realised that I still wanted to have a few dishes from the stalls that were already covered in part 1. And soI first moved towards my 'home base', the Karavali stall and bought a plate of Mangalore buns and kurma. Now, although there isn't a local name for this dish and it's called buns (even in singular), it is made by mixing all purpose flour, curds, bananas, cumin, sugar and salt. The side dish can be anything, in this case a medley of vegetables.

Buns and kurma

Next, noolu puttu, from the Malnad stall. Well actually, this dish is also quite popular in Mangalore, where in the local Tulu language, it's called semeda addye (say-may-da add-yay), and is usually had with chicken gravey, or mixture of coconut milk and jaggery with sliced bananans, or at times with grated coconut and jaggery. Here, it was served with coconut milk, which was hot (I"m guessing it was to prevent the milk from curdling/spoiling). Nonetheless, this was quite superb, especially given the fact that Adiga's doesn't normally make this at any of it's (known) joints in Bangalore.

Noolu puttu with kai halu

From the Hyderabad Karnataka section, there were a few items I wanted to try, but settled for something light (what I thought would be light). So I had the Bellary onion bonda, which in all honesty, I didn't like, but then again, I don't like bonda's of any kind. I only bought this because I had a momentary lapse in concentration and thought bonda was the same as pakoda. My bad.

Onion pakoda with chutney

I wasnted to have the Davanagere benne dosa, but for some reason, the Davanagere stall was closed. So I moved over to the Mysore stall, and just as I was about to order a masala dosa, another gentleman placed an order for 10! I knew this would be a wait I didn't have the time for, so I ordered the open masala dosa, which turned out to be quite a good choise. It was superb, almost as good as the benne dosa itself. The toppings were great, and so was the chutney. But the butter was what did the trick I guess - it's always the fatty, unhealthy things that happen to make things taste better. There's no justice in this workd I tell you!

Mysore open masala dosa

For those of you who're used to food from the north Karnataka, you'd know that while Dharwad is famous for it's brown peda, the city of Belgaum is known for a sweet very similar to the peda, known as kunda, in a form that's the same as a peda that's been crumbled. While this wasn't as good as the real dseal, it was still good enough.

Kunda

And finally, the pièce de résistance of sorts, the jolada rotti, a flat chapathi-like bread made from jowar (sorghum). This is usually eaten with a brinjal (eggplant) and chutney powders. It's best eaten while it's hot, or else you run the risk of it turning into a mini bullet-proof jacket of sorts. Suffice to say it tasted good, and the brinjal curry was superb.

Jolada rotti with brinjal curry and chutney powder

Overall, thoroughly satisfying fest, one that I'm sure to attend every year from now on.