It is that time of the year again – winter brings with it the avarekayi (field beans of the lablab family) season. The sprawling metropolis of Bengaluru still retains its umbilical cord with its erstwhile self through the Kadalekayi (ground nut) parishe of Basavanagudi, followed by the Avarekayi season every winter.
Every traditional dish of a Bengaluru household will turn into an avarekayi dish this season, offering a mindboggling variety of dishes – Avarekayi upma, avarekayi rotti, avarekayi dosa, avarekayi sambar, avarekayi vada and even avarekayi payasam. You name it and an average Bengalurean will make it with Avarekayi. Skinned beans double the variety on the table further.
Take a stroll in any of the city’s markets – Gandhi Bazaar, K R Market, Malleshwaram – every second person hawks avarekayi. Lazy to skin the produce? The markets sell skinned, ready-to-consume beans at a slightly higher cost. Crashing vegetable prices in avarekayi season, as the beans take over the menu of most households, has been an annual phenomenon in the city for decades now.
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The annual Aavare bele mela that celebrates the local culinary tradition of the region, held at Vasavi Condiments, V V Puram, the traditional Southern part of the city for the past 14 years, has now attained an urban folklore status.
Have you eaten an avare bele gulab jamun or an avare bele jalebi? Why not try an avarekayi idli?
If your mouth starts watering at the mention of these dishes, it’s time you make your way to the mela. It features more than 50 avarekayi dishes, to savour which you need to brace the jostling of hundreds of avarekayi enthusiasts. What makes the festival more attractive are the affordable prices.
“The innovation of avarekayi dishes at the festival improves with every passing year. Avare bele gulab jamun was quirky and great,” said Chaitra, a techie who had been to the mela this year.
K S Geetha Shivakumar, the organiser of the festival, said that business was as brisk as every year in the past. What adds to the contentment, she says, is supporting the avarekayi farmers from Magadi.
More than 200 avarekayi farmers , whose avarekayi is known to be the best of the lot, are part of the festival.
The season started late this year, due to unseasonal rains in the last quarter of 2015. But, they will be around till early March.
Enough time to plan a trip to sample your share of the bean.