BASAVANAGUDI: Mane Holige, or homemade holige, a new outlet rubbing shoulders with its illustrious neighbour Upahara Darshini, on DVG Road, is dedicated to this sweet dish. Though it stocks a whole range of condiments, it’s the holige variants that seem to be its USP.
Holiges traditionally come in two variants— the dal holige and the coconut type. But like the dosas of today, this sweet is dished out in several avatars by innovative chefs.
Mane Holige now offers a dozen different variants of holiges like the badami, dry fruits, kova, carrot, karjura (date), sugar ghee, kobbari (copra) sugar, dry coconut, coconut, dal, 50X50 and bili (white) holiges.
“The 50X50 is essentially a combination of two flavours. It combines two tastes and is our specialty,” says Bhaskar K R, who plans to offer one specialty one day of the week. The bili holige is not a sweet dish but a spicy one which comes with a gravy accompaniment like the avare bele masala or the brinjal gravy.
“There have been quite a few variants for some time now. We have created a few on our own,” says Bhaskar K R, who will soon launch the gulkan holige, which will be made with rose petals.
“We have been running a factory where we prepare the holiges and supply them to other outlets and some customers. Mane Holige is an effort to reach the customer directly,” says Bhaskar.
Wasn’t it daunting to locate the shop virtually attached to Upahara Darshini and run the risk of being literally elbowed out? “Customers have been flocking to us from the day of the launch,” says, Bhaskar.
The holige is essentially a dish made for special occasions like festivals, weddings and house warming ceremonies and makes up the lunch menu for such events. But these days, it’s been gaining popularity as a standalone dish at restaurants and roadside stalls.
“People find such outlets a god send. In today’s age, few people have the time to prepare holiges at home. With outlets like ours, they are happy that they can have the holiges any time they wish,” says Bhaskar, whose chefs can be seen rolling the dough into perfect spheres between their greased palms, flattening them on a sheet of paper, inverting it over a sizzling tawa and after a while, peeling off the paper like a sticker, showing the golden brown holige ready to be served.
“People like this live counter, where they can have the holiges right off the tawa,” says Bhaskar, who also caters for functions and weddings.Mane Holige also offers the two other popular wedding dishes like the peni and its cousin the chiroti. The store is open seven days a week from 9 am to 8 pm.