Eating Out

Its apparently impossible for us to order anything we don't like here and its all great value. You can get a fish curry meal for 10 Rs (13p)and a monster thali with two desserts for 25 Rs (33p).  If we're splashing out at Mangalore's most expensive restaurant the most we can spend is about 15 quid for a slap up dinner for two including beer. On account of being killed only minutes before cooking, all the chicken here is amazingly tender and tasty and we go through several chickens worth of tandoori every week.  Regardless of what they say in Birmingham, Chicken Tikka Masala is widely eaten here along with loads of other so called inauthentic curries.

Wherever you go in Mangalore the service is fantastic.  Its a feat to down your Kingfisher and get your empty glass back on the table before its refilled.

Mangalorean Food

Mangalore is famous for fish curry which you eat with a massive pile of thick rice paper called Kori Rotti and Chicken sukka (chicken fried in coconut and red chilli). Every single Mangalorean recipe is made from coconut and red chilli.

Boozing

Luckily for us, unlike other cities in India, Alcohol is widely available and accepted in Mangalore.  There are three types of drinking establishment:

 

"Had your Lunch?"

If you can say 'Had your lunch?' you can speak Mangalorean.  Its appropriate to use the phrase in any situation, from buying fish to having an argument, at any time of day.

 

 

 
  South Indian Thali (before endless rice service)

 
 

1. Wine Shops which don't sell any wine but do sell beer and spirits and are found on every street throughout the city.  You can get your parcel beer here or do as the locals do and pull up for a mug full of the roughest whisky, downed in one go and straight of course.  Arrack huts are your poor mans Wine Shops and sell a sort of Indian Ouzo.

2. Pubs are generally men only (unless we're there) and follow the British tradition of being dark dingy places with toilets you'd like to wear waders in. 

3. Restaurants ('Bar attached') are the only drinking establishments where you might see a female (though only as part of a family group) and often have outside seating areas.  Strangely, beer costs pretty much the same wherever you drink it, apart from the bar at the Taj Manjoran, Mangalore's most prestigious hotel where its double the price.

Kingfisher Premium 5% is the beer of choice but you can always opt for the strong 8% which has the same effect as rough scrumpy.  i.e. makes you go mad and sometimes a bit emotional.

By far the best beer snack is the ubiquitous Raja Special - a peanut masala made from roasted peanuts, tomatoes, onions, chilli, curry leaves and lime.  Its salty, spicy and fresh.