Ganesha Hubba Utsav

This years Ganesha Hubba Utsav was held, as it always is, at the APS grounds in Basavanagudi, close to BMS College of Engineering. And as always, there was a lot of fanfare and robust crowd participation. And once again, as usual, the food festival was a huge draw for both the foodie and the non-foodie, tourist and the local. Although vegetarian (it's a religious festival), crowds swarmed the location on all days.

The Davangere benne dose, one of my favourites, was a smashing hit this time around as well. As well, you ask? Have you forgotten last year's Ganesha Hubba Utsav, part 1 and 2? Hmpff. Anyway, my fake outrage aside, the dose was just as buttery soft as before, and if it weren't for the plethora of dishes on offer, I'd have been scarfing down 4 of these babies.

Davangere benne (butter) dose

From the Davangere Bayaluseema region to the Karavalli or coastal region (yup, my area). I started of with the Mangalore goli bajje, so called because of their resemblance to a goli, or marble - mighty big ones I might add! Made from gram flour (besan), these deep fried delicacies are had with coconut chutney. Deep fried, hot, a little spicy - how can you go wrong.

Mangalore goli bajje

Again, many apologies for posting this so late - I know the hubba (festival) was over a long time ago (month and a half now) and this is probably only going to unnecessarily make you crave for something that you can only get after a year, but then again, I hope this annual event is something you'll be making a note of and heading towards each year. Sure, it's deep into south Bangalore, and most of the Koramangala-Indiranagar-Marathahalli-Whitefield junta think it may not be 'cool' enough for them - suit yourselves folks, I'm just putting gyaan here, the rest is up to you.

In an effort to catch up with the growing backlog, the rest of this post shall be pictorial with minimal text in it.

Making the dosas

Being served the dosa - everyone wants in on the action when they see the camera :)




Mangalore buns and kurma (left), pathrodey (Colocasia roll)

Making masala dosa














Sweet kadubu (left), and semeda addye (rice noodles) in coconut milk

Jolada (jowar) roti with brinjal curry, green gram curry, and chutney powders




Making gundi appa (left), and the appas served with chutney

Making neer dosa

Kadubu with chutney

The only part apart of the fest I didn't particularly like (apart from the fact that there is no non-veg) is the fact that every year, the contract to make and serve the food is given to Adiga's. At the very least, I'd have thought there'd be some kind of bidding process, or giving the cuisine of each region to a different catering chain - that way not only would things be fresh, there'd also be more focus on the food for that particular cuisine. Although a lot of the food here was good, some of the classy regional dishes weren't made the way they're supposed to. And I felt regions like Chickamagalur and Coorg (among others) weren't properly represented with their local favourites. This problem could very easily be sorted out by dividing the regional cuisines among multiple caterers.