Food
Coconut and the morning's catch: the dishes on Honavar's menus and where to order them.
Rice, a coconut-based fish curry and a fried fish on one plate: the classic Honavar lunch. Hotel National has served it since 1974. At Samudra it comes with clams and a dry prawn dish and Karavali Shailiya Mane Uta cooks it the way families do at home.
Fish coated in semolina and fried crisp. Navarathna Fish Land does kane (ladyfish), silver fish, koddai or prawns ‘rava’ style and Nagvekar's in Kasarkod is known for its rava and tawa fries.
A rich, red roast of ghee and roasted chillies. Order prawns or crab ghee roast at Navarathna Fish Land, or prawns ghee roast at Udupi's Pingar Dhaba.
Clams (moravai) dry-cooked with roasted coconut and spices. Navarathna Fish Land has it on the menu, Samudra serves clams with its fish meals and Nagvekar's is praised for them.
Crab cooked dry with roasted coconut and spice, messy and worth it. It's what Gajanana Fishland in Kasarkod is best known for.
Crisp dosa cooked in plenty of ghee, the dish that makes Mari Bhattara Hotel near Gunavante a highway stop. Try the ghee masala dosa too.
Soft, slightly sweet fried buns, the breakfast of the coast, eaten with chutney or bhaji. Find them at Mari Bhattara (buns bhaji), Nammane Bhattraa Hotel and Hotel Delight.
Fluffy fritters for tea time, with coconut chutney and a strong tea or filter coffee. Mari Bhattara makes them every afternoon.
A home-style vegetarian spread: rice, sambar and seasonal vegetables, with tambuli (the cooling buttermilk-and-greens dish of the region) and proper filter coffee. Have it at the 1929 Diner at Areca County, or in town at Nammane Bhattraa Hotel, which cooks without onion or garlic.
Strong South Indian filter coffee, or kashaya, a warm herbal brew. Mari Bhattara serves both and the 1929 Diner pours proper filter coffee.
Paper-thin, lacy rice crêpes. They're not common on Honavar's menus: Navarathna Fish Land is one of the few places that serves them, three to a plate, good with fish curry.
The coastal sundae: layers of ice cream, jelly, fruit and nuts in a tall glass. In town, Karavali Ice Cream makes its own and its dry-fruit gudbud is the favourite; Malnad Ice Land at Areangadi is worth the detour too.
Kanni Ice Creams at Kavalakki makes natural fruit and gulkand ice creams, some set inside the fruit's own shell. Malnad Ice Land's jackfruit ice cream is worth the detour.
Photos: Abyventura (CC BY-SA 4.0), Kalesh (CC BY-SA 4.0), DreamyFlutura11 (CC BY-SA 4.0), Charles Haynes (CC BY-SA 2.0), Sohom Datta (CC0), Rayabhari (CC BY-SA 3.0), Kalesh (CC BY-SA 4.0), Dbenbenn (CC BY-SA 3.0), Alok Saldanha (CC BY-SA 4.0), via Wikimedia Commons.
Where to try each dish is taken from the restaurants' own menus and listings. Menus change with the season and the catch, so ask what's fresh today.
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