26 February, 2018

If you see yourself settling in Bengaluru in near future, food is going to be a major focus area. This could be due to a variety of reasons. You may be a foodie, you could have an explorer’s tongue, or you may simply want to keep kitchen time within a certain limit. If you are working, it will be hard to control your culinary desires because of the sheer number of restaurants offering “yumsome” delicacies in the city. Bengaluru is a weird mix of old and new. The food culture here is growing every day. Moreover, if you are in Bengaluru, you must try its delicacies. This highly cosmopolitan city has a huge respect for its traditional cuisine too. Bengaluru was a sleepy old town that has transformed into a bustling metropolitan. This sudden transformation has allowed the food scene to develop. There are plenty of options, regardless of whether you are here as a tourist or as a settler. You get most of the city’s delicacies in Whitefield. This micro-market was a peaceful agricultural suburb until the IT boom in the early 2000s. Today, massive real estate projects adorn its skylines. Whitefield is a major employment hub. Thousands look to call it their home. Demand for properties is very high. It has some of the best schools, hotels, shopping malls, and of course restaurants. Whitefield never disappoints when it comes to mouth-watering treats. Here we are going to cover some of the delicacies that are must-haves in Bengaluru. You will find most of them all in Whitefield too. Vegetarian or non-vegetarian, we Indians love our food. Food needs to be delicious to really make a lasting impact on our taste buds. We are fussy about our food choices. To us, food is more relatable emotionally regardless of whether our stomachs are empty or not. Hence, without further ado, let us drool over a few Bengaluru authentic dishes and few that have become favourites in recent times. They are too good to let go! Masala Dosas Bengaluru has a variety of masala dosas, top favourites being Benne Masala Dosa and Set Dosa. The former is a thick rice pancake prepared with butter, and the latter contains three medium-sized dosas. Traditionally, masala dosas are rice pancakes smeared with red chilli chutney and stuffed with potato curry. It is the household food of southern India. In Bengaluru, people make it a point to visit its iconic breakfast spot CTR for its signature benne dosas. It is not the Tamil-style thin dosas but typically Kannadiga. CTR serves the dosas only with chutneys and not with sambhar. Whitefield has its fair share of masala dosa joints, some of the notable ones being InnerChef, M Cafe in Bengaluru Marriott Hotel in Whitefield, Mavalli Tiffin Room (popularly known as MTR), By The Way, Adyar Ananda Bhavan (A2B), Udupi Grand, and many more. Having a masala dosa in Whitefield is not tough at all. In fact, you will find it hard to set your mind on one. Bisi Bele Bath It literally translates to hot lentil rice and is a rice-bashed dish originating in the state of Karnataka. The traditional preparation is pretty elaborate. You need a lot of vegetables, toor dal, and spicy masala to get the dish going. The dish gets its taste from the cocktail of spices, which involves tamarind pulp, curry leaves, asafoetida, and nutmeg. The authentic ones are prepared using up to 30 ingredients. Bisi Bele Bath is commonly served in the Udupi restaurants that are widely popular in Bengaluru. The dish is served hot with potato chips, papad, salad, boondi, or chatni. The Mavalli Tiffin Room (MTR) in Whitefield serves good Bisi Bele Bath. Rava Idli Idli is a popular breakfast food prepared using savoury rice cake. A batter is created using fermented rice lentils and rice. Then it is steamed. Rava Idli is a variation of the popular Idli and is made with semolina. You will taste great Rava Dosas in the Udupi restaurants scattered all around Bengaluru. Apart from Mavalli Tiffin Room (MTR), Kamat Yatrinivas, Mr Idli, and New Udupi Delicacy also serve the dish in Whitefield. Khara Bhath This is yet another insanely popular breakfast item of Karnataka. The dish is prepared with Semolina/Sooji/Upma Rava cooked in lots of ghee and oil and with vegetables and spices. It is also known as Chow Chow Bath in Bengaluru. Brahmin’s Coffee Bar is the most-favoured destination for Khara Bhath along with the Udupi restaurants. Filter Coffee You can call it the Bangalore Coffee. You can enjoy them everywhere in the city. But the most popular names serving the steaming kaapi are Brahmin’s Coffee Bar in Basavanagudi, Airlines Hotel in Lavelle Road, Indian Coffee House in Church Street, MTR – Mavalli Tiffin Room, Maiyas in Jayanagar, Kalmane Koffees and Hatti Kaapi in Koramangala, Janatha Hotel, Hallimane, Raghavendra Stores and Central Tiffin Room in Malleshwaram, and Vidhyarthi Bhavan in Basavanagudi. Khova Naan When in Bengaluru, you must try the Khova Naan. This is a specialty of Bengaluru bakeries. The naan is prepared with plums, cashew, sugar, and coconut. The mixture is roasted and fried, and then stuffed in the naan made of maida. Al – Bilal Bakery and Albert Bakery are hotspots for this item. Samosa India without samosa is unthinkable. Bengaluru has a very strong samosa-eating culture. You will be surprised by the variety of samosas available here. You get onion samosas, keema samosas, aloo samosas and what not! It is a staple of school and college students. In Whitefield, you can try various samosas in Inorbit Mall, Samosa Party, Kapoor’s Cafe, Whitefield Social, Samosa Kachori and Jilebi Shop, Om Sai Samosa Corner, Kesar, Refresh, Gowri Gajanand Sweet, The Square Table Restaurant, The Whitefield Diner Restaurant, 153 Biere Street, and Windmills Craftworks. Semiya Payasam The Semiya Payasam is a kheer made of vermicelli. A lot of milk and sugar is used to prepare this recipe. You will find this sweet dish in almost every traditional household of Bengaluru. You can also try it in Whitefield in the Mavalli Tiffin Room, Southern Spice, and also in Tiffin Room – Holiday Inn & Suites. Point of Interest: You should also try Semiyan, which is very much like steamed idli and made from rice flour. It is best had with Pathar Gosht or Paya. More on the two later. Rice Kheer Rice kheer or Akki payasa, also known as Pal Payasa, is prepared with rice, whole milk and a touch of saffron. There are various ways to make this sweet dish and people use other ingredients too. You can have Rice Kheer in Whitefield in The Square Table, Ji Hazoor, Kapoor’s Cafe, Marigold Fine Dine Restaurant, and in M Cafe - Bengaluru Marriott Hotel Whitefield. Rice Kheer is known by different names in different parts of India. Mysore Pak Even though this sweet is not Bengaluru’s claim to fame, and originally originated in Mysore, Bengaluru is a hot hub for the sweet. The sweet has a golden hue and essentially consists of three ingredients – sugar, chickpea flour, and ghee. The sweet gets its name from “paka” - the local word for sugar syrup. Pulla Reddy Sweets and A2B - Adyar Ananda Bhavan offer Mysore Pak in Whitefield. But the legendary sweet shops that sell the best Mysore Pak in Bengaluru are Anand Sweets, Gundappa Sweets, Sri Venkateswara Sweetmeat Stall, Kanti Sweets, and Sri Krishna Sweets. Parathas Parathas are a hot favourite in the whole of India. Bengaluru too offers some delicious parathas, especially the coin paratha. The Permit Room and the Empire Hotel are hot favourites when it comes to coin parathas with a twist. Coin parathas are basically layered parathas made using egg, maida (Indian wheat flour), and cooking oil. Have these parathas with Ghee Roast Chicken. You may not find the name “Coin Paratha” on restaurant menus in Whitefield. Do ask the restaurant before taking your seat. Anda-Kheema Roti If you want to have wheat roti prepared with beaten egg and stuffed with spicy minced meat, you should head straight to Frazer Town. Whitefield may not be the right place to taste the authentic Anda-Kheema Roti. However, you will also find a number of stalls in City Market and Shivajinagar offering Anda-Kheema Roti. Pathar Ka Gosht This is an authentic Hyderabadi cuisine that has become a top favourite among Bengaluru foodies. A big stone slab is placed on top of the coal fire and shredded mutton is fried on the slab. It is a very time-taking process and fire needs to burn from evening till night. The slab of stone takes more than two hours to heat up. Ji Hazoor in Whitefield is pretty popular for this Hyderabadi delicacy. But Bengaluru has a number of options. Sharief Bhai and Empire Restaurant in Koramangala, 612 East in Indiranagar, Chichaba's Taj in Frazer Town, Bademiyan Kebabs in Orion Mall, Citrus - The Leela Palace in Old Airport Road, and Kava - Fairfield by Marriott in Rajajinagar all serve this dish. Paya This is yet another time-taking dish where lamb legs are roasted and cooked in a lot of spices. The dish takes more than four hours to prepare. It is best had with Semiyan. You can have Mutton Paya and Paya Shorba in Ji Hazoor and Terracotta - Vivanta By Taj in Whitefield. Koramangala has a lot of options. Some of them are Punjab Grill, Sharief Bhai, Sulemani Chichas, Paradise, and Anjappar. Barbeque City in KR Puram, Karama Restaurant in Frazer Town, Ranganna Military Hotel in Jayanagar, Kritunga Restaurant in Electronic City, Cubbon Pavilion - ITC Gardenia, Chinnaswamy Naidu Biriyani, Mughal Treat and Rashtrakutas in HSR, Tandoori Taal in Indiranagar, and Hotel Little Imperial in Kalyan Nagar are your other options. Point of Interest: Also try Bengaluru’s Kadi Gosht – pierced chicken breast pasted with masala and deep-fried. Bangalore Dum Biriyani Yet another insanely popular dish in India, if not the most popular, Biriani is a world-favourite. The Bangalore Biryani is prepared using Basmati rice and succulent, tender goat meat or chicken, steamed in spices. Unlike Kolkata Biryani, there is no potato. You will find a number of restaurants offering Biryani in Whitefield. Some of the mentionable names are Biryani Zone, Ammi’s Biryani, Green Hyderabadi Biryani House, Pot Biryani ITPL, Kolkata Biryani Whitefield, Biryani Kitchen, Chinnaswamy Naidu Biryani, Mani’s Dum Biryani etc. Teetar This is a big hit among the city’s foodies. If you are a non-vegetarian, you should try Teetar in Bengaluru. Bird meat (partridge) is marinated in curd and ginger-garlic paste. It is then fried in refined oil. There are a few food joints on the Bengaluru-Mysore road that draws huge crowds for Teetar. Whitefield may not be the ideal place to hunt for Teetar Fry. Try Sharief Bhai in Koramangala, the Imperial Restaurant and Chichaba’s Taj in Frazer Town, and the Hotel Palace in HSR. According to an October 2017 article by NDTV Food, Apple Pie at The Only Place, Andouille Sausage and Soft Eggs on Sourdough Toast at Toast & Tonic, Beer and Nachos at Windmills Craftswork, Char Siu Bao at the Fatty Bao, Pasta at Toscano, Seafood at Karavalli, and local meals at Vidhyarthi Bhavan are also must-try dishes of Bengaluru. These are modern dishes that have become very popular in recent times. Hundreds of restaurants are opening every day in Bengaluru. It is next to impossible to really keep a track of all the mouth-watering treats they are preparing in their kitchens, unless and until you start exploring. Must-Reads: How’s Arabian Food In Whitefield? Let’s Find Out... Nothing Like A Hot Cuppa! Whitefield’s Top Cafes That Are Must-Visits Whitefield Restaurants Every Food Lover Must Visit