What to Eat on the Udupi Coast

Two quite different cuisines meet on this stretch of coast, and most visitors only find one of them.

The first is Udupi cuisine — strictly vegetarian, developed in the kitchens of the Sri Krishna Matha, and exported so successfully that "Udupi hotel" became shorthand for a certain kind of South Indian restaurant across the whole country. The second is coastal Karnataka seafood — the food of the fishing villages, built on coconut, tamarind, curry leaf and whatever came off the boats that morning. It is not vegetarian at all.

Eat both.

The vegetarian side

Masala dosa. Udupi's most famous export. The claim that it was invented here is argued about, but this is undoubtedly where it was perfected. Crisp, thin, with a spiced potato filling, chutney and sambar.

Idli and vada. Breakfast, everywhere, every morning. The idli should be light enough to feel slightly underweight in the hand.

Goli baje. Soft, tangy fried dumplings of fermented batter with green chilli and curry leaf. Sometimes called Mangalore bajji. The right thing to eat at four in the afternoon with a coffee.

Neer dosa. Very thin, soft, lace-edged rice crêpes — the name means "water dosa". Not crisp, not spiced, and completely addictive with a coconut chutney or a curry.

The temple meal. Free, served daily at the Krishna Matha on a plantain leaf, and better than a good deal of what you will pay for. See our temple guide.

The seafood side

The fishing here is serious — Malpe is one of the larger fishing harbours on the west coast — and the cooking is built around coconut and heat.

Fish curry with rice. The everyday meal. Usually a coconut-and-tamarind gravy, red with Byadgi chilli, with whatever fish is in: mackerel, seer, pomfret, sardine.

Fish fry, rava-coated. Fillets rubbed with masala, crusted in semolina and shallow fried until the outside cracks. Order this first anywhere new.

Kori rotti. A Tuluva speciality and the local dish most worth going out of your way for: dry, brittle wafers of rice rotti drowned in a chicken curry at the table, so they soften as you eat. Textural, messy, excellent.

Anjal, ladyfish, clams. Ask what came in today rather than reading the menu. The answer changes daily and the right answer is always the fresh one.

Drinks

Filter coffee. Strong, milky, served in a steel tumbler and davara. The standard is high everywhere.

Tender coconut. Sold from carts and roadsides for a few rupees. In April, this is survival equipment.

Toddy. Fermented palm sap, mildly alcoholic, sold in licensed shops near the coast. An acquired taste but very much of this place.

Sugarcane juice and lime soda. Everywhere, and exactly what you want after a beach.

Where to eat

Udupi town for the vegetarian canon — the area around Car Street and the temple is dense with places that have been doing the same six things very well for decades.

Malpe for seafood with a view, and the fish market itself if you like watching a working harbour.

Kodi Bengre for kori rotti, fish fry and toddy in small local places near the river mouth.

Roadside on NH 66 — the unglamorous places with lorries outside are frequently the best food on the coast. Look for a crowd.

And then there is pizza

Somewhere in the middle of all this, we put in a proper pizza oven with a stone deck.

It is a strange thing to do on the Karnataka coast, and the reason is simple: there was nothing else. Not a bad version of Italian food — no version at all, for a very long way in any direction. So the dough is fermented slowly, the stone runs hot, and the result is the pizza we grew up with rather than an approximation of it.

We are aware of how that sounds. Come and check.

Eating well: three rules

1. Follow the crowd, not the signage. The best places here look like nothing.
2. Ask what is fresh rather than ordering from the menu, especially for fish.
3. Eat breakfast properly. Idli, dosa and coffee at 8 am is the meal this coast does

best, and skipping it for toast is a waste of a morning.