Udupi- The land of Food, Food and Food!!!

Hailing from Udupi and with genes of forefathers who were hoteliers, there was nothing surprising when I decided to choose food! Absolutely blessed to be born in a land that speaks of its rich tradition of Food and considers Anna Dhana as the biggest dhaana! 

When we people go looking for houses, the first thing we observe is the size of the hall/ drawing room! And we calculate how many people can be seated for lunch during our functions! That decides if we want to continue looking at the other rooms or not! That's our connect to food and anna dhaana!

Back to Mangaluru! The rich color of the Byadgis, the home grown coconuts, the carefully harvested Coriander seeds, the local fresh veggies from the local fields, the aroma of coconut oil, the nice blend of tamarind and Jaggery! A perfect blend of richness in spices and aroma that makes the food served in the Udupi, mangaluru belt very very tasty and wanting you eat more.

Enter Mangaluru and one would find every other temple in the south Canara region serving free meals to all devotees. As you go around the temples at around 11.30, you are definitely going to hit the aromatic breeze smelling of the saaru boiling, the perfect blend of Byadgis, coriander seeds and coconut oil churned to a hand blended Saarinpudi.

The rice, Saaru, one bajji made with some vegetable peel and an ajothna with loads of coconut, one payasa! Finish you lunch with curd and Saasmi uppuda and your day is made.

The standard menu in most temples on a normal day is Rice, saaru, bajji, Ajothna, Payasa, Curd and Uppuda! On festival days, you ought to relish the Pancha Baksha Parammanna Ashana ( 5 sweets with payasa and an elaborate lunch that would easily have atleast 20 items) served on a banana leaf.

The Saarinapudi ( Rasam Powder)  that is used in the South karnataka belt is a brilliant combination of spices majorly using Byadgi chillies that give a very rich color to the powder. The Byadgi chillies are grown in the Ghats and have a very rich aroma that makes it stand out of the rest of the chillies. Not very spicy but very rich in color much like the Kashmiri chillies!

This is one masala powder thats the staple in most udupi households. A generous serving of this goes into our Saaru ( Rasam), Kodhel ( Sambar), Sagu ( Mix veg gravy). This is a multipurpose powder that we use in most of our dishes and makes the dish look and taste the best!

The preparation though varies from house hold to household! As with most udupi recipes, the saarupudi recipe is carefully handed over generation after generation and knowing to make the perfect saarupudi can make life very easy! 

Our Journey of Roora's flavours started with the humble saarupudi. The most wanted product by most of our customers and the one powder that has had the most repeats from many of them. We try and source the byadgis directly from Mangaluru! Stock this one magic potion and you are settled for life with your masalas! 

For ordering all home made masalas and Udupi special masalas from Roora's Flavours: email : roorasflavours@gmail.com ! 

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