Ratha beedi or the car street of Udupi where Krishna matha is located is mainly surrounded by the 8 mathas which is headed by 8 different seers & these seers are the one who worship lord Krishna. Apart from these mathas, the ratha beedi is also having plenty of options for the authentic vegetarian restaurants which serves the satvik food. Don't get confused with the Jain food. Here satvik food is the one which resembles the taste of temple prasadam or the food available in the Bramhins house!
I was very fortunate to visit one such resturant which is an iconic restaurant namely Mitra Samaj. Popular among the devotees as well as the localities, one can witness the crowd here in the resturant where the customers savouring the iconic dishes in their menu.
Days before I visited here, I was fortunate to view the Vlog of Sri Kripal Amanna in the gourmet on the road. The menu was fixed & the only thing was to travel to Udupi & savour these food. Towards the end of November i did a small trip to the western coast of Karnataka & visited few temples as well as savoured some delicious food.
2nd day of my trip I arrived Udupi at 5 am & checked in, freshened up and proceeded towards the matha to get darshana of the Paramathma, Lord Krishna. Matha was closed at that time & i decided to visit other temples in the ratha beedi. Though I was hungry, I was not in a mode of having my breakfast before the darshanam. So headed towards Mitra Samaj to have the first dose of coffee for that day! Coffee was really good & it made me to forget the hunger.
Fast forward to evening, after a qualitative sightseeing in Udupi I finally arrived to ratha beedi once again to savour the iconic dishes available in Mitra Samaj. I was told to have the masale dosé, button idli, Goli baje & buns.
I started the test match called savouring from the button idli, which is also known as bullet idli. These small sized idly which was too cute to see was dipped in the sambar and it felt as if the idlies were too high as it had drunk the Sambar or in other words it had absorbed the Sambar. The idlies were too soft & if you forget to bite the idly will just gulp down to the stomach through the food pipe unknowingly. On the other hand, sambar was too delicious not too watery in terms of consistency. Mildly spiced, yet well balanced in terms of the taste.
This was like the opening bowler in the cricket match.
Next comes the second opening bowler called masale dosé. Crispy dosé stuffed with potato curry served along with coconut chutney & Sambar. While having this dosé, I also came to know that this resturant is being run since 1950s & they are one of the first ones to create masale dosé. So, you can tell they are one of the OGs. Savouring the masalé dosé I ordered a Goli baje, which was the next celebrity. Words will fail to describe the taste of masalé dosé. Coconut chutney on the other hand was not too spicy, well balanced taste & it had a watery consistency.
Now comes the Goli baje, which is made out of the batter which has maida flour mixed with curd & fermented for 6 to 8 hours (for the best results). It also has some chopped green chillies, chopped coconuts & also some curry leaves. This batter is finally purified (deep fried) in the bath of hot coconut oil. This is also served with coconut chutney.
One thing about this restaurant is Goli baje is not stocked like most of the restaurants, yet they are freshly fried as they get the order. No customer will be disappointed, but they might end up in ordering an extra plate of Goli baje.
Crunchy on the outer layer but equally soft inside the goli baje, also traces of chillies that you accidentally or purposeful bite will give you a punch of spiciness & chopped coconut will come to rescue & reduce that spiciness in your mouth.
Post, Goli baje I was not in a state of having anything but some beverage. Now, I once again ordered a cup of coffee to flush out the excess oil in the throat due to the golibaje 🤣.
Time to give the report card
Taste - 9
Service -8 pretty quick
Ambience - 7.5
Value for money - 8, very economical..
Nice one
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