If it’s South Bangalore that you are hitting up for your breakfast scenes, then setting your GPS to Basavanagudi comes highly recommended. We did just that on one fine Sunday morning and discovered what is arguably one of the finest breakfast runs we have done in a while. Unlike the breakfast walk that will have you eating biryani at 8 am, our breakfast trail was all vegetarian and all South Indian. Organised by Bengaluru By Foot, Mansoor Ali was our guide for the day and the only thing he asked of us was to keep enough and more space in our tummy. And a liking for walking. This is, after all, a breakfast trail that involves a whole lot of eating and equally a whole lot of walking. After all, walking does build up the appetite. This is what we did in exact order…
Idli, Vada And Filter Coffee: There's No Breakfast Like A South Bangalore Breakfast In Basavanagudi
Masala Dosa At Vidyarthi Bhavan
Naysayers will point you to other iconic dosa places in town, but if you are in Basavanagudi, you can’t miss out on Vidyarthi Bhavan’s {VB} ghee-soaked masala dosas. The place gets packed by 8 am, so we suggest you reach well before that. Khara bath and frothy filter coffee are other must-haves here, but since we were had a lot to cover {or rather eat}, we decided to give them a skip. But hey, you can read about our verdict on VB’s old-world charms and the menu here.
Green Thatte Idlis At Namma S.L.N
Green idlis and green dosas are what Namma S.L.N is known for. But trust us when we say there’s nothing dramatic or colourful about these green idlis. The green in the idlis comes from the use of dill in the batter. Served with a piquant white chutney, a plate of one thatte idli costs a mere INR 30. You can easily down two. Fair warning, the place is quite cramped, so you’ll have to stand outside and eat. Just place the order inside and wait for you steaming fluffers to be ready. There’s no crockery available here either as everything’s served on banana leaves.
Vada And Upma At Mahalakshmi Tiffin Room
The holy trinity of any South Indian breakfast is idli, dosa, and vada. And since we had already had the former two, Mahalakshmi Tiffin Room {MLTR} was our place for digging into the third — the vada. Crispy and slightly oily, the vadas here are served with coconut chutney and sambhar. Once you’re done soaking up all the sambhar with the vada, order the upma. It can easily be finished in a couple of spoonfuls, so if you think you have some more space in your tummy, order another round. Since the place tends to get crowded in the mornings, you are most likely to share your table with the friendly neighbourhood folks who frequent the place.
Kesari Bath And Coffee At By 2 Coffee
By this time, Mansoor shifted his and our focus from idlis and vadas to something more sweet. First up on our last leg of our breakfast run was digging our spoon into By 2 Coffee’s scoop of slightly greasy, not too sweet kesari bath. Make sure you order a round of filter coffee. This is your caffeine fix for the day unless you’ve already had your coffee from either VB or MLTR. Actually, even if you have, this one’s worth another cuppa.
Sakkar Pongal At Puliyogare Point
By the time we reached our last stop for the day, our tummies were on the verge of bursting. Even Mansoor seemed to agree and we kept things light with the Sakkar Pongal. Unlike the usual pongals that you get at all the local dharshinis, this one is a sweet version. In fact, it can be a little too sweet for some, it was for us, but we are guessing it’s to do with the kesari bath we had a while back. In any case, this dish is a huge hit with patrons who know of its existence. We even saw people getting some packed for home. We wondered if we should pack some Puliyogare for home, but then again, given that we had eaten enough to last the whole day, we gave the piquant dish a skip.
Bengaluru by Foot organises similar walks including heritage walks like the one we were part of. To join them or know more about upcoming walks, find them on Facebook here.
