Of Bengaluru's namesake: Bean there, had that

Chew Mantra

For a city that derives its name from a bean, life seems to revolve around the legume. Its citizens’ fetish for a certain unassuming bean has not diminished one bit though the once-sleepy town has grown like the beanstalk of the fairytale fame.

The vegetable in question is the avarekai, whose scent and sight seem to send the average Bengalurean into a frenzy.

For the uninitiated, the sight of homemakers sniffing handfuls of the greasy, green beans scooped up from the mounds heaped up on Gandhi Bazaar’s pavements appears strange. But for the haggling, excited buyers, it means only one thing. The menu for the next few months, till the season lasts, is set.

Starting from breakfast, lunch and the afternoon tea snack, the aromatic avarekai would dominate the family’s dining table. The upma, rasam, sambar, akki roti, ragi roti and even the bisibele bath and pongal are served with a dense suspension of the bean.

Banga Roll

Some homemakers take their love for the legume to another level as they try out beans in payasas and holiges, on their husbands, who then dread the prospect of choking on their bean while sipping their morning coffee. The Bengalurean’s fondness for the bean is probably best evident at the city’s famous snacking quarter VV Puram, where an entire festival is dedicated to the shiny little bean. For about a week, there is a virtual riot of recipes with the outlet dishing out snacks, savouries and sweets of every kind made from the pea. And at another food festival hosted by the Consulate General of Japan in Bengaluru in 2018, the celebrated Japanese delicacy sushi dedicated to Bengaluru was launched. Called the Banga Roll, it came in Karnataka’s colours of red and yellow and was crowned by the glistening, green edamame bean, a distant cousin of Bengaluru’s own avarekai, to celebrate the city’s link to the legume. Though traditionally a winter vegetable, the avarekai these days can be found almost throughout the year, thanks to researchers at the University of Agricultural Sciences, Hebbal, who have developed a variety called the HA4, short for Hebbal Avare, which can be harvested in all weather conditions.

The city’s elevation, which blesses it with a bracing climate, also gives it its characteristic winter mist, which locals believe is the secret behind the avarekai’s unique aroma.

(A fortnightly look at some food fetishes and secrets from a city of gastronomes and beyond.)