Dasara Aahara Mela 2010

How do you savor the lip-smacking delicacies from across Karnataka & India without actually traveling? Simple, all you have to do is get into the Dasara Ahara Mela at the CADA Office premises. It is one gastronomic ride for all the foodies & offers some healthy snacks to the fitness freaks as well.

We started off tasting the Paddu served with mint chutney & aaloo gravy. The Paddu’s were very hot but the stuff that came along weren’t. The aroma of the Davangere Benne Dosa was too much to resist. We skipped some stalls in between and reached to order some. They were priced 15 bucks for a dosa along with plain chutney and aaloo palya & the taste was heavenly.

While relishing the dosa we saw a bunch of females kneading the dough, making and burning the Bijapur jowar rotti. The hengai was boiling hot in the large vessel. Next thing it was in our hands, one rotti, some hengai, a red chutney pudi all for a cost of 20 bucks. Al though the rotti was soft, the hengai failed to cater our spicy buds and was less on gravy as well.

Bangarpet Panipuri had its talk in most of our local papers, curious about the taste we decided to take it on. A plate of it included a small bowl of paani, 5 puris costing 10. Crispy and not so spicy, much disappointed Pati said that the ones near the Kuvempu trust taste better. It was time we had something spicy and our attention went on to Kerala stall. The lady was selling puttu for 20 bucks and there was hardly any content in the plate. She was always giving away nool puttu (3 in numbers) for 20 but the nool was just 5 starnds of rice vermicelli. We decided to give it a skip and landed in the AP stall.

The menu had Dum Biryani, Kababs and Omlettes. We took a chicken biryani that consisted of 2 chicken pieces teamed with some raitha priced 40 rupees. It was a disaster again; the taste was not so apt for a Hyderabadi cuisine. The stall next to it was having all kinds of Kababs and we opted for a chicken item that consisted of 5 kababs some boneless & some with bones charged 20. 

“Machli jal ki rani hai” and we thought we should have her next. Fish fry at the Manglorean stall gave us a plate having 5 pieces of very spicy fishes. They were so hot that we had to opt for the home made apple vine at the Coorg cuisine stall. It tasted real good hence we decided to give the grape a try as well, & it was even more divine. All for 40 bucks!!

The pink cotton candy sticks were irresistible and I persuaded Pati to get me one. They charged us 15 for a chota stick. Somehow the sweet at the end of all the eateries was not sufficient, with two minds we barged into the “Benne Gulkand” outlet. A plate had watery gulkand, topped with very few dry fruits & 8 slices of banana upon that was a small dollop of butter. Too much for a sweet!!!

& I was on a two day detox after that evening, Sigh…..