The hearty EPIC-oorean

Temple bells chimed on a motley crew’s journey into the cuisine trails from authentic Karnataka. The significance of the bells were that they dotted their path as temples opened for morning pooja or closed after evening arti, on this tryst with cuisines of the state. Chef Manjit Singh and Suresh T Venkataramana took the road less travelled to hidden corners of our state, and the bronze bells were a constant companion as they brought Kannadada oota to this new hub Oota in Whitefield. Like a calling for prasada, those temple bells now take pride of place here, forming a merry sumptuous semi-circle glinting in gold across the ceiling, with ghantis announcing the arrival of this ode to indigenous cuisine from Malnad, south and North Canara, coastal and interiors. Oota celebrated its first anniversary, and signifying the foresightful journey that chairman Kamal Sagar of Total Environment and his team have taken to unearth intrinsic food is a feat in itself. The team (two food writers and a videographer as well) took 120 days travelling, and three years of preparation to open! Unique secrets grandmothers knew, we hear regular customers come all the way from Mysore, families in tow! Even a Havyaka Brahmin was surprised and happy to see his community food, included, finally. That is the exhaustive journey that represents Oota.

Suresh and Manjit opened dekchis, ground masalas, opening many a oggarane dabbis (spices boxes) through local kitchens and family secrets, tasting fresh morsels, staying with warm openhearted folk, learning from the best the mother of the house. And in that, Oota’s team came back with parchments of ingredients, recipes and conversations with ajjis and ammas, with unique ingredients, be it ant chutney, hibiscus leaf, niger or uchhel pudi or even meat, inspired by the Marathas. Unlike other restaurants that are swayed by trends, this is indeed a labour of love, a vision of Kamal Sagar’s taken forward to document hinterland recipes. That a restaurant came out of it was purely incidental!

“Kamal Sagar wanted us to explore and document inherent cuisine. I must have driven 30,000 km, staying with friends and friends of friends — Arun Pandit and Suchender Hirial, through Hubli, Dharwad, Hospet, Chitradurga and more. We cooked with mothers, grandmothers, even legendary restaurants (the ghee roast is a Shetty Lunch Home signature). We met warm and knowledgeable people, and were entrusted cooking legacies,” avers Manjit Singh, who started Herbs and Spices (earlier), and has been onboard as hospitality consultant for Sagar’s Windmill Craftworks, and others. The menu on an ipad has dishes region-wise, local names and a translation (to not anglicise it), with soul food. It’s an altercation with age-old recipes, and soon short 40 second recipe videos will be added. Be it dalcha, mutton pundipalyam (Bellary), or annanas gojju and ambo curry from Malnad, or kumbla (mushroom) curry, arravay soppu pallya (green amaranth) and bednekai (brinjal) too. We started with a chutney pudi fiesta, placed on a tray with a garuda-like Annapakshi (the only mythical being that can separate water from milk). We dove into shenga (groundnut), niger and flax seed pudi, with gusto. Delicious and peculiar with the most yummy chutneys of the day, we had fresh radish and tomato. Wow! There are also bitter gourd, ridge gourd, dil, versions of mint, tomato with shenga, chana dal, brinjal and bhindi chutneys too. Freshest of fresh. The chutney is a meal in itself for us simpletons, with ghee and steaming rice! 

The vegetarian on our table would have loved a thali, but the team wants people to taste each region’s inherent flavours. Plans are afoot to start a thali, region by region (staple, mains and starters). We slurped on sungta masala prawns, succulent, spiced in red chilli and delicious with the neer dosa. 

The drinks too are village faves, we sipped on arshina (turmeric) tambuli, a speciality of the Malnad Havyaka Brahmins,  and it also has dil, wine cactus, nellekayi flavour, infused with medicinal properties. The hearty jolada roti, a bit dry, can be eaten with just pudi and ghee, like the farmers of the region or with a niger-infused badnekai, sweet and deliciously spiced. We had the kadabu, freshly steamed lentil parcels with coconut, with the most ‘sending it’ ginger tamarind chutney. They have it in prawn too. Do order this special from the Beary community! The elusive Mangalore buns were portly and delicious, banana flavoured, with coconut chutney sweetish and fluffed up. Must-have. We had a light tangy soul kadi and the orange-flavoured majjige (flavours change daily). Neil, the mixologist poured us a Jackfruit cocktail Jakota which was subtle, tasty, and so was the smoked whisky one. But we were more interested in what Chef Suresh dished out 

Robust and rich the Khara (meaning salty) boti, was lipsmacking, a traditional dish by the Souji community, it was melt in the mouth, “The community believes they are the descendants of the thousand-armed Arjun, a martial race originally from south Nepal, they served under the Marathas, Dakshini sultanate and Hoysalas!” explains Manjit. We were taken aback with the exhaustive foodie wisdom Oota is privy to.

There is enough for the vegetarian, oh and the non-vegetarian! Oota celebrates the legacy and history of Karantaka cuisine so splendidly, even the ‘so far in Whitefield’ might not be a deterrant once you taste the food!

We also tasted the Sirsi dish of Hagelkai, or bitter gourd in jaggery with caramelised onions wow. It had a chewy sweet bitter texture we loved. The ghee roast was perfection, in spice and flavour, with the light neer dosa. The mutton rassa was light, tomato-inspired and flavourful and the rich Dalcha was heavy, creamy with spice and very meaty. Our favourite was the light playfulness of the Souji chicken curry, wholesome, freshly made and succulent chicken, beautiful. There are different grains of roti chukka, jowar, akki, zapati (made with five flours besan maida, jowar atta and bajra.)

 “We take time to get dishes to the table as we make them fresh,” adds executive Chef Suresh who’s mother’s best dishes are also on the menu, “Khara boti is popular, our customers appreciate the vegetarian fare. This particular gentleman from Mysore brings his entire family, Sudhir Nagaraj, even his mom!” The most surprising part of this labour of love is that both Suresh and Manjit have been apprehensive about someone saying, ‘yes, our mom makes it better, and “unfortunately, we have not heard that!” they laugh.

The restaurant is open for lunch and dinner, and plans to start a sumptuous breakfast soon and its special pudis will also be bottled for sale. For dessert it was a predicament of sorts, as we wanted to have Chef Suresh’s mom gasagasa (poppy payasam), ragi unde, elneer payasam, and obattu. We had all! The gasagassa was creamy, delectable and so yum, and so were the unde and obattu. The elneer payasam was subtle in sweetness, we would have liked more elneer bits.

“We also have the balehannu halwa with banana icecream and caramelised murmure, and kadige chokku made of jackfruits,” explains chef Suresh who also recommends the ambo curry from wild mango. Family secrets from kitchens of the past, it’s an ode any foodie must experience. It’s history of food celebrated with such gusto. 

Must haves: The chutney and pudis. Mangalore buns, khara boti, kadabu, badnekai, mutton rassa, sungta prawns and ghee roast, and all the desserts.