Boiled Beans..On and In Everything !
A chilly winter evening, wind in my hair, Ranga and I biked down to VV Puram, the hotspot with the ongoing 'Avarekai Parishe'..an annual festival dedicated to the humble Avarekai..or Hyacinth beans, unique to Bangalore/Mysore belt. But wait, did I say humble? ..there is nothing humble about this bean..its really "bean" there done that !! - it is these the boiled beans which gave the city Bengaluru its name - a shortened version of Bendakalooru (or City of Boiled Beans).
Also, a few decades back, this was considered a vegetable only eaten by the well-heeled and the inner peel (hithavarekai), after the beans were shucked...was chucked in front of their residence gates to inform others that they had had avrekai that day!. If you have it flaunt it, eh? In fact even today if one were to go early mornings or evenings in the old bastions of Malleswaram / Basavanagudi etc in Bangalore, this can be seen.
Anyways, as expected the gully next to VB Bakery was packed with foodies and long queues snaked from each shop where harried chefs dished out mouth watering piping hot avarekai dosas, avarekai sambar, avarekai akki rotti, avarekai ragi rotti, avarekai uppittu etc etc..the list is quite long, and if you had a sweet tooth you could wash it down with avarekai payasa or avarekai jilebis and avarekai gulab jamoons (and no, I am not kidding..these are for real!). But being the sweet people we already are, we enjoyed the avarekai pani puris instead and followed it with avarekai dosa and an akki rotti. Then we were done.
But the avarekai was all pervading, uncooked and cooked in so many many ways...wish dad could have come, he loves avarekai, no way could amma-appa manage in this mad melee, throngs of food-addled people !
Sated, pleasantly happy, we walked around admiring the hawkers selling bangles, bags, hair clips and a host of other things, not to mention avarekai which was retailing at Rs.100 a litre (peeled) !! Well, couldn't resist, bought some of this aromatic magical beans (maybe Jack climbed this bean stalk..and if he did..I can fully understand his compulsion :-)
We then had the good fortune to spot one of the old temples in that area of Satyanarayana Swamy and received piping hot sakkare pongal as prasadam..a fitting finale to a lovely laid back evening, a throwback to the 80s and 90s...but fun!
Returned home by 9pm..we had spent just over an hour at the Parishe, and an hour and a half commuting..but what the heck..it was worth every bean !
A chilly winter evening, wind in my hair, Ranga and I biked down to VV Puram, the hotspot with the ongoing 'Avarekai Parishe'..an annual festival dedicated to the humble Avarekai..or Hyacinth beans, unique to Bangalore/Mysore belt. But wait, did I say humble? ..there is nothing humble about this bean..its really "bean" there done that !! - it is these the boiled beans which gave the city Bengaluru its name - a shortened version of Bendakalooru (or City of Boiled Beans).
Also, a few decades back, this was considered a vegetable only eaten by the well-heeled and the inner peel (hithavarekai), after the beans were shucked...was chucked in front of their residence gates to inform others that they had had avrekai that day!. If you have it flaunt it, eh? In fact even today if one were to go early mornings or evenings in the old bastions of Malleswaram / Basavanagudi etc in Bangalore, this can be seen.
Anyways, as expected the gully next to VB Bakery was packed with foodies and long queues snaked from each shop where harried chefs dished out mouth watering piping hot avarekai dosas, avarekai sambar, avarekai akki rotti, avarekai ragi rotti, avarekai uppittu etc etc..the list is quite long, and if you had a sweet tooth you could wash it down with avarekai payasa or avarekai jilebis and avarekai gulab jamoons (and no, I am not kidding..these are for real!). But being the sweet people we already are, we enjoyed the avarekai pani puris instead and followed it with avarekai dosa and an akki rotti. Then we were done.
But the avarekai was all pervading, uncooked and cooked in so many many ways...wish dad could have come, he loves avarekai, no way could amma-appa manage in this mad melee, throngs of food-addled people !
Sated, pleasantly happy, we walked around admiring the hawkers selling bangles, bags, hair clips and a host of other things, not to mention avarekai which was retailing at Rs.100 a litre (peeled) !! Well, couldn't resist, bought some of this aromatic magical beans (maybe Jack climbed this bean stalk..and if he did..I can fully understand his compulsion :-)
We then had the good fortune to spot one of the old temples in that area of Satyanarayana Swamy and received piping hot sakkare pongal as prasadam..a fitting finale to a lovely laid back evening, a throwback to the 80s and 90s...but fun!
Returned home by 9pm..we had spent just over an hour at the Parishe, and an hour and a half commuting..but what the heck..it was worth every bean !
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