My origin is from north kanara or uttara kannada with RCI for karnataka thought of sharing some glimpses of this part of karnataka. Though I spent most of my childhood and education near Bangalore my moms native sagar(my moms place), sirsi where my Doddamma, my In-laws stay and mathikoppa near Ekkeri, vardahalli where my another aunt stays are very close to my heart and would love to visit during our summer vacation. The main cultivation wise near my native they grow paddy, betelnut, coconut, cashew nut. I think not many have tasted the fruit of cashew. So every year my aunts family who have their own plantation are busy in the process of picking betelnuts drying them and selling them eventually during the season. I am not much aware of the technics but me my sis and cousins would stroll round the village to have fun plucking the fresh fruits, veges and of course used to drink lots of tender coconut water. Only wish I had the pictures so that I could post them along. If we happen to peek in their lifestyle is so different and really very amazing though they have to go along quite a tough path. They all are so healthy even at this age cross my fingers but the fact is the nature and type of living makes a lot of difference.
The chief language of the district is Kannada, with minorities of Konkani, Marathi, and Tulu speakers. The population is predominantly Hindu, comprising of many communities like Havyaka, Nadavas, Gowda Saraswat brahmins, Vokkaligas, Sherugars, Namdharis and Vanis.
The Havyakas are united by their unique language. They speak a dialect of Kannada known as Havyaka Kannada. It is similar to mainstream Kannada but draws more words from ancient Kannada. However, most mainstream Kannada speakers find it difficult to understand Havyaka Kannada. The Havyaka dialect is supposed to be quite old. Its origins, like many other things in India, are shrouded in mystery. Notably certain Havigannada(Havyaka Kannada) speakers , more so in Uttara kannada, use neutral gender in place of feminine gender while addressing females. But Havyaks in certain part of Karnataka, like Kundapur, Thirthahalli, Kodagu do not speak Havigannada.

One of the most ancient Madukeshwara temple in Banavasi. If any friends/guests would visit the first one which my Dodappa would ask lets take them to Banavasi.The annual December cultural festival, Kadambothsav, is a huge gathering, organized by the state government, and featuring folk dancers, drama troupes, classical musicians, art exhibitions, while drawing together performers, artists, and writers from all of south IndiaBanavasi has long been a cultural centre, especially the Yakshagana art form. Today local artisans craft and sell the classical folk art Yakshagana masks here. Read more about Banavasi here
source:Wikipedia
JOG Falls

If you happen to go karanataka don’t miss the jog falls which is located near Sagar in Shimoga dist. This year the falls were breathtaking. These are some of the photos sent by my friend. The best time would be in mansoon to visit these falls.River Sharavati falls from the height of around 253 mts and splits itself into four major falls called as Raja, Rani, Rocket and Roarer. Whenever i visited it would be dry never had been able to visit at the right time. Trekking up and down is really fun i made it only once during summer.

Coming to the dishes
Morning breakfast normally we are lovers of dosa, like uddina dose(urad dhall dosa thick ones), Bele dose(thin dhall dosa), Banana dosa(balehannu doddana), halasina hannu(jackfruit) dose, mogekai dose(cucumber dosa even made sweet and plain), Neer dosa(tellevu), uppitu/upuma, avallaki/poha various kinds. Plain iddilis are quite rare. We have sweet kadabu, chappe(plain) kadabu different kinds of steamed dumplings, rotis(phulkas)of wheat, jowar and rice, chapatis and thalipeetu of jowar, rice, wheat, ragi or mixed too.

Neer dose/Thellevu


All you need
par boiled Rice - 1 cup
raw rice - 1 cup
fresh grated coconut - 1 cup
Method:
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Soak rice the previous night in water
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Next morning grind the rice and coconut to a fine paste
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The mixture should be thin like butter milk like we do for rava dose
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Heat the tava wait until it is hot
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Pour the batter like for rava dosa, the batter will spread itself and make sure to pour other sides just like rava dosa
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Once it has cooked just remove and serve immediately. Do not over turn the dosa
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The texture will be thin and spongy. Serve hot along with spicy chutney
Beluli chutney
All you need: 2 pods of garlic, 1 tsp jeera, 1 tsp urad dhall, 2 -dry chillies, 1/2 cup grated coconut, tamarind and salt as per taste.
Method: fry garlic, jeera, urad dhall chillies in 1 tsp of oil. Grind with all the other ingrediants. No tadka is required.
Avallaki Manohara
This sweet is normally made with fried boondi too. I just loved this sweet very first time i had at my mothe in laws place and was totally flat at it. But as i queried my mother in law she told we could as well make with poha. So this was a great way for me to skip the making of boondis.So here i go

All you need
Thick poha - 1 cup
jaggery - 1 cup
grated coconut - 1/4 cup
seseme seeds - 1 big tbsp
Method:
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Deep fry Avallaki(poha) in oil keep aside
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Dry roast seseme seeds until fragrant
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In a saucepan take jaggery add 2-3 tbsp water, grated coconut and let it boil until 2 thread consistency
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now turn off fire, add fried poha mix well add the seseme seeds and give a nice stir taking care not to break the poha
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Wait for 15 minute to cool it will seperate out like sweet boondis but a little crispy. This can be stored for a week.
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At my native they prepare with the natural jaggery ( neer bella/joni bella) color will be dark brown will write about this in my next post
Maddur vade
This has been blogged at various bloggers but I could not resist so I had make some maduravada vade maddur vade

All you need
Maida - 1/4 cup
Chiroti Rava/ fine semolina - 1 cup
Rice flour - 1/4 cup
coriander leaves - 1/2 cup
curry leaves - 1/2 cup
green chillies - 5-6
onions - 2 big
salt to taste
Method:
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cut chillies, onions. coriander leaves, curry leaves finely
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Mix all the three flours well with salt
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heat 1 tbsp of oil and add to the flour
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Add the chillies, onions, coriander leaves and curry leaves to the flour
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Add water and mix until to get a dough of consistency for vadas
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Pat on your palm or a plastic/waxed paper to a round circle and deep fry vadas in oil serve hot.
note: This is dough can be made a little stiff like for puris. Roll them to small puris, deep fry and can be stored like crunchy snack. Goes very well along with hot tea/coffee.
This goes for RCI Karnataka hosted by our dear blogger Asha from Foodieshope which is orginated from Lakshmi of VeggeCuisine
Thanks Sandeepa, Bharathi and Tee for the inspiring awards.