Tryst with Southern Karnataka

It all began when I was born with that unending love for food and a desire to try out something new every time. As a result of the beautiful chemistry of fate and and choice, I, a hardcore Punjabi, landed into the beautiful city of South Karnataka, Mysore, a typical South Indian city at its heart and face. My first friend here was a guy from a nearby village, son of a farmer, a South Kannadiga, non Hindi, non English speaking guy, with whom conversing was like writing a program code for a language for which you only know the most familiar keywords. 

This guy introduced me to the typical South Kannada farmers' meal, called Ragi Mudde, as I wanted to try out something really authentic to the place. As always is the case I like to know my food well, I read about it and got ready to taste this lesser known Dakshin Kannada specialty. Simply put, it is Ragi flour cooked in boiling water, beaten to a smooth dough like consistency with no lumps, rolled into the size of tennis balls, traditionally eaten with saaru (or sambar) made of vegetables.

Then started the search to find a place and it was found soon, a restaurant that is clearly defined by its name "country cuisine". The menu was indecipherable, but who needed menu that day. The stage was all set, let the show begin. The plate came and there it was the show stopper of the day, looking into my eyes, telling me "you don't even know how to start!". I started the traditional way, with one hand taking a bite size piece, dipping in sambar, the obvious accompaniment, throwing into my mouth, chewing it to get the taste of a South India, earlier unknown to me. It was quite a disappointment after the Mysorean Idlis and Dosas. 

The waiter observing me right from the very first moment, form the far end of the aisle of tables, came to me with a welcoming smile and reminded me the fact that they are not supposed to be chewed, just dip it and pop it, no need to taste it. I started eating the way like I never did earlier, forgetting my usual approach of eating for taste and successfully had half of it. It may seem that I was tired of it and came again my savior with same pleasant smile asking me to try something that I, according to him, was also totally unfamiliar with - jamoon- that's what they call Gulab Jamun here, trying to convince me that it was a sweet dish and I would definitely like it. But I decided to finish with the best thing about South India- "the filter kaafi" and and felt really full on my stomach and my heart and told myself - Welcome to Dakshin Bharat!