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Great for breakfast or light lunch, oats upma improvises upon the traditional recipe THE ubiquitous South Indian snack Upma has always intrigued us — we mean the name. In original Sanskrit, the word means simile and the great poet Kalidasa is widely recognised as the peerless master of this figure of speech. The delicacy for many food lovers may be incomparable but then why not call it anupama? Was this the name originally given and ease in pronunciation has resulted in the intriguing abbreviation? The legendary MTR in Bangaluru served an extremely satisfying plain no-frills rawa upma but let us confess, for us nothing matches the seductive power of the slightly oily upma wrapped in plantain leaf lined newspaper packet doled out as take away at the UNI canteen in the Capital. One could on a good day even discover a cashew nut but the helping was generous and the taste always consistent. No need for samabar/messy chutney/pickle et al. The expansion of the Metro line has put the UNI canteen beyond reach but memories linger. Then there is the bread upma prepared in a jiffy by Dr Laxmi Jambolkar where the double roti had vanished like the proverbial drop in the ocean dissolving its egoistic personality in the larger entity in a sublime manner yet contributing body and flavour that distinguished this dish from the rawa upma. To be honest, when splurging at an udipi eatery, we prefer upma or pongal to vada and idli. Poet Kamalesh — friend, philosopher and guide to us — recently dazzled us with a brilliant fusion incarnation of upma that we have great pleasure in sharing with our readers. The traditional recipe is healthy enough but this improvisation raises the nutritional benchmark many notches without compromising on taste or eye appeal. Great option for breakfast or a light lunch.
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Ingredients