The coastal table
What Tulunadu eats, and why
Rice and coconut form the backbone of every meal here, with the day's catch or a slow-cooked meat curry built around them. Most of it is served at our own table, if you'd like to try.
Kori Rotti Signature dish
The dish most associated with this coast: a fiery, coconut-based chicken curry (kori) ladled over crisp, paper-thin rice wafers (rotti). The wafers soften slightly as they soak up the gravy, giving the dish its signature contrast of crunch and heat. It's the meal we cook most often for guests who ask "what should I try first?"
Neer Dosa Breakfast staple
Neer means water, and that's the trick to this dosa — a thin, delicate rice crepe made from a runny, unfermented batter, cooked quickly on a hot griddle until lace-thin and tender. Served plain, with coconut chutney, or alongside a curry, it's the breakfast you'll most often find on the verandah table.
Coastal Fish Fries The day's catch
Whatever comes off the boats at Malpe harbour that morning — usually mackerel, anjal (seer fish), or kane (lady fish) — gets coated in a bright red rava-and-spice crust and shallow-fried until crisp. Simple, fast, and the reason locals plan meals around what's fresh rather than what's on a menu.
Kori Sukka Dry-roasted chicken
Where kori rotti is all gravy, kori sukka is its dry-roasted cousin — chicken cooked down with roasted coconut and a robust spice blend until the moisture reduces to a thick, clinging coating. Best eaten with plain rice or, again, a stack of rotti on the side.
And much more Round out the table
Ask and we'll happily cook further into the repertoire: gassi, a mellow coconut-based curry served with fish or chicken; patrode, colocasia leaves rolled around a spiced rice-and-lentil paste, steamed and pan-fried; sasive, a tangy mustard-seed curry; and mor curry, a light buttermilk-based curry that closes out a heavier meal. Udupi town itself, just fifteen minutes away, is also the birthplace of India's famous vegetarian "Udupi cuisine" — worth a separate meal entirely.
Ask ahead
Want a coastal meal cooked for you?
Let us know your dietary preferences a day in advance and the family kitchen will put together a proper Tulunadu spread.