Mangalore Buns recipe

Person: Where are you from in India?
Us: Mangalore
Person: Oh Bangalore! Nice. I’ve heard of it.
Us: No. Mmmmangalore. With an “M”
Person: Oh. Where is that?

That’s pretty much how every conversation we have about Mangalore goes. Non-Indians haven’t heard of it. Or if they have, they don’t know much about it other than the name. They’ve definitely heard of Bombay, Delhi, Kerala, and even the small, beachside, party central neighbor – Goa. But not Mangalore.

The conversation then goes like this:

Us: Do you know Goa?
Person: Yes!
Us: Its very close. Few hours by train actually. In fact, we speak the same language. Konkani.
Person: Ah nice…

Yeah it is!

And there’s more to it than just being neighbours with Goa or Kerala. As India celebrates its 73rd Independence day today, we thought it would be good to introduce you to where we’re from. Though we’re both born and raised in Dubai, our roots are from a city called MANGALORE in the southern state of Karnataka. It is on the southwest coast and is a huge port city, known for its Hindu temples, universities, hotel management school, teaching hospitals, seafood, and gorgeous women. By gorgeous women, you know we mean Aishwariya Rai 😉 There are six-seven languages spoken in this city; our parents collectively speak four: Tulu, Kannada and two similar yet different types of Konkani. One is spoken by the Catholic Mangaloreans while the other is spoken by Gowda Saraswat Brahmins.

Phew! That was a mouthful!

The cuisine is just as diverse. It’s big on seafood, thanks to the long coastline. Its also heavy on coconut which is a staple ingredient in all of south India. Whenever we’re craving “home” food, we usually go to Canara or Venus – both of which serve Mangalorean cuisine in Dubai.

Canara is great for lunch or dinner. You get all the Mangy favourites like chicken sukka, pomplet curry, lady fish fry, ghee roast, mutton green masala, sannas, pathrode, panpole (neer dosa) and more. Venus on the other hand is great for breakfast. Growing up, our family (and all the other Mangys we knew) would go there after church. It would be THE place to catch up on all the “news” from Mangalore over plates of goli baje – aka Mangalore bonda. These are soft, pillowy, slighty tangy morsels which literally melt in your mouth, and leave you with oily fingers. So worth it!

Another delicacy you can find at Venus – and one we both love – are the Mangalore buns. Namrata’s memory of this treat is picking up a fresh batch wrapped up in newspaper during road trips while on holiday. These made for the perfect car snack when the family was doing the temple tours around Udupi.

Nancy’s mom makes these Mangalore buns at home and so here we have the recipe for you. They can be eaten on their own or if you like a mix of sweet and savory, you can eat it with coconut chutney. 

Let us know if you give it a try!

What is your favourite snack from your home city?

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Mangalore Buns

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour

Servings 12 buns

Author Jacintha Quadros

Ingredients

• 2 ripe bananas
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup yogurt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 and 1/2 cups flour
• oil for deep frying

Instructions

• In a large mixing bowl, add bananas and mash.
• Add sugar, salt, yoghurt and mix well.
• Add baking soda and flour, and knead it well to make a dough. Add more flour if necessary/ if the dough is too wet. It should be the consistency of chapati dough. Cover and rest this dough for 6-8 hours.
• Roll it out into small, round shapes.
• Deep fry on both sides until golden brown.

Notes

The dough can be made at night, and you can roll them out in the morning, ready for a hot breakfast.