Got an invite for “Karunadu Swada” at the MTR Food Festival by 21st January for experiencing one of Karnataka’s oldest cuisines at St. Johns Auditorium, Koramangala, Bangalore.
First there was a Blogger’s meet organized by MTR with Chef. Chandri Bhat, she shares her culinary secrets and origin stories of Karnataka cuisine. She demonstrated the preparation of a cashew fruit based curry with potatoes, a kheer which is prepared by steaming the rice dumplings and later simmered in coconut milk. I would say it was yum, heavenly and delicious.
Karunadu Swada – Karanataka Food Festival by MTR
More over the best part that I loved over there was, it was not only the food but also, she shared the history of the food and its preparation right from the idly, hayagreeva halwa to mysore pak.
I was astonished when she shared the secret of Idly as they were prepared by steaming the ground black lentils without fermentation. Also, she added that the authentic and traditional mysore pak was the one with pores and crispy, not the soft once. She did share about a treasured book (culinary) which was passed to her from her great grandmother. Loved the way she cooked, share the secrets and her experience in culinary world.
After this blogger meet, we had a lunch, where we could get all the Karnataka’s authentic and traditional food in one place right from the Thatte Idly to the hayagreeva halwa. Also, there was stalls based on each and every region of Karnataka with their familiar food right from Mangalore till Kodagu. The food was great, loved it to the core – happy me and yummy tummy – as I got to have most of my favorite’s all together – Rava Idly, Thatte Idly, Bisibelebath, Masala Dosa, Tharvada peda and so on.
Madraasi - a tamilian tales 