Kundapur Cuisine....... Bangalored at Nama Mane

Nama  Mane………………. Bangalored with Kundapur Cuisine

Nama Mane…… means  "My House"

In North and Western India an eating joint owner has a photograph with Shahrukh Khan the place is a hit. Down south, if the place has a photograph of Rajnikant you are mostly assured of a good meal. We were eating at a Mallu joint on the erstwhile tony area of Brigade Road in Bangalore. Eating decent Biryani followed by Parothas and Brain Curry followed by Sulaimani Chai. This, local affordable exotica for the journeying salesman was on my recommendation. I had thrown the gauntlet at my team, they accepted the challenge and wanted to now show me around with a counter attack.

The volley was fired by Abhijit, Rajbansh and Sunanth they first invited me to Nama Mane a small eating place where the food comes in vans and is dispersed in thalis in a tiny dining hall and outside tables.  We had just returned from The Ham shop, at MG Road , bought three kinds of sausages, Goan, Spicy and Plain (spicy was the best) and Salami and Ham, superlative…. an over  70 year old shop , more of that later.

Now, Nama Mane serves Kannadiga Food, which can be classified predominantly as:

1)      The Udupi… Vegetarian food (Udupi District)

2)      The Mangalorean…. Coastal food with Coconut and Kokum (Mangalore District)

3)      The Kundapur Food…..  a little Muslim cuisine, Maratha and local Kannadiga ( Mysore and around)

4)      The Coorgi Food…. Game, pork, spicy ( Coorg- of course)

Nama Mane is  more the Kundapur style but serves Ragi Balls with  Curried lamb chops, Biryani rice with Chilly Chicken (my favorite, it’s not Chinese as the name suggests), rice with Special Chicken they also do  liver fry, mutton fry,kidneys, intestine and brain all curried and fry versions. It is located opposite Mallige Hospital on the Crescent Road close to the Bangalore Golf Club. The lads had already done course full of organ meats and were waiting for us for round two I was one round one they on round two. Whilst, I ate hungrily, they ate elegantly.

The food is superlative, it’s piping hot, chicken and lamb dishes are to die for spicy, flavorful, comes with an onion and cucumber raita. I was also introduced to the famed ragi balls or ragi mude (balls with the size of tennis balls made out of ground and salted finger millet). The bland ragi balls go very well with the spicy mutton and chicken dishes.

Our Limousine drive, otherwise a veteran of the area did not know the place existed and was excited to share that he had just eaten a childhood favorite if his Ragi mudde with tripe curry (intestine curry).

A fine meal for two with mineral water and Thumbs up is about Rs 350/-. Fantastic and the taste and flavor lingers on.

Advantage, Abhijit, Rajbansh and Sunanth. You probably will win this round. I was so excited about this place that I even took an ex colleague with me to Nama Mane on my next trip to Bangalore. Hats off.