Delicacies of Kundapur – Vol 1

By Sheethal

I love food. Being a complete foodie, I love trying out delicacies when I visit any place. When I visited Kundapur, I had the pleasure of trying out so many delicacies, you won’t believe it! Most of these delicacies are everyday delicacies. They’re common in every household of the coastal region. However, some delicacies are specially made during festivals such as Deepavali, Hosthu and Thulasi Puja. Fish is common in every house. After trying most of these dishes, I found that there is one common factor connecting them all. Most of them are baked with very little use of oil which makes these dishes highly nutritious! Even the ingredients used are very common place and organic in nature. Here’s a list of everyday delicacies and special delicacies. What are you waiting for? Go ahead, indulge yourself! 

The most common, everyday delicacy is Neer Dosa (Theli dwasi - ತೆಳಿ ದ್ವಾಸಿ). Dosa as you know is made from a batter of rice and urad dal (ಉದ್ದಿನ ಬೇಳೇ). However, Neer dosa is exclusively made with just rice batter. The rice is soaked and ground into a fine (extremely fine) thick paste. The batter is then left overnight to rise (ಉಬ್ಬುದ್). There is a special tava to make neer dosa and the technique used is also very unique. Let me explain. The thick batter is mixed with water just enough to make the batter watery. Once the tava is hot, it is then sprinkled on the tava. The baking method is the same as a dosa. The sprinkling, you have to see it to believe it! The neer dosa is then served hot with yummy coconut chutney. It is absolutely mind-blowing with chicken sukka/curry. This delicacy is usually had for breakfast. You can have it for lunch too with chicken or fish curry. 

 I forgot to mention earlier that I have a sweet tooth. I’m not going to wait any longer to introduce this next yummy delicacy. It is a sweet dish called Shekkit (ಶೆಕಿಟ್). This sweet dish is also made with rice. You have to soak rice and then grind it in a grinding stone. However, you have to be careful while grinding it. You cannot use too much water. It has to, has to be thick, more dough like in consistency. This requires a filling which usually consists of a mixture of grated coconut, jaggery and ground cardamom. The rice dough is then made into small rice balls and spread on a single turmeric leaf. That’s the specialty of this dish, the turmeric leaf. The health benefits of this are immense. It is then filled with the filling and then baked. It is made specially for Deepavali. It is served hot and usually is an evening snack. You’ll notice there is absolutely no oil used in this dish! So healthy!

 

When you visit the coastal area, these are must try delicacies. Check out these two for now. There are many more delicacies to follow. Keep watching this space for more!