Last year at a Mangalorean Oota pop-up hosted by chef Shriya Shetty, I had my first taste of ghee roast; it was love at first bite. Shriya had researched, created and re-created the recipe for four months to put the final version on our plates. The masala for it, which is mainly byadgi chillies and ghee is cooked for six hours straight; a pure love of labour.
This time around, backed with more research and an even better recipe, she’s hosting another pop-up at Colaba’s Bombay Vintage which focuses on the Shetty Lunch Home style food along with other classic Mangalorean dishes.
Born and bred in Mumbai, Shriya moved to Mangalore three years ago to learn the intricacies of her ancestral cuisine. But as they say, you can take the girl out of Mumbai but can’t take Mumbai out of the girl. Shriya’s love for the city is best displayed in the signature Ghee Roast Pao (₹325/295) where she marries her velvety version in a pao which is toasted in ghee. The menu is Shriya’s attempt to showcase the richness of Mangalorean food which goes well beyond neer dosa and gassi, and the Temple Tacos (₹295) drives home the point. A menu favourite, the tacos are Shriya’s twist on a traditional Udupi temple meal. Here deep-fried papad acts as a taco shell which comes with kokum rice, kanchala chutney (bitter gourd cooked with tamarind), black beans sukkah and pomegranate salad.
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The Peelakay Salad (₹295) — a nod to the fruit that grows in almost every backyard in Mangalore — is a melange of jackfruit seeds, pickled raw jackfruit and fresh jackfruit tossed with spices and fresh coriander, The Prawn Sukkah (₹545) with mini rice dumplings is perfectly sized to be scooped up with neer dosa. The vegetarian Mensakaay Oota (₹395) is a mini meal with a sweet and sour pineapple curry, urad dal salad, manoli beeja (tendli fried with cashews and fresh coconut) and jackfruit papad served with ghee rice. Any Mangalorean meal worth its salt is not complete without the Kori Rutti (₹545) and Shriya’s version uses country chicken for the gassi which is served with crisp rice rotis.
Food is often, if not always, about memories and Shriya taps on that part of the brain with her dessert — the Jackfruit Payyasam Ice-Cream (₹195). Created by Bohri Mohalla’s legendary Taj Ice-Cream, the dish is served on banana leaf garnished with candied seed chips and pickle. “I have memories of eating the temple meals in Udupi where payyasam was served at the end on the same plate,” says Shriya while explaining the spicy element, “the payyasam would get mixed up with leftover sambar, pickle etc. The addition of pickle is my take on that,” she adds.
Then there’s the famous Gadbad (₹265) — a sundae of three scoops of ice-cream topped with cashew nuts and fresh fruits.
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The Shetty Lunch Home menu is available at Bombay Vintage, Colaba until July 31.