With Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana gearing up for Ugadi, the beginning of the New Year in South India, preparations are in full swing to start the year on a good note.

A hero dish prepared at this time is the famous holige.

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Also known as obattu, holige is a paper-thin pancake made from flour, stuffed with dal, jaggery or coconut, and slathered with ghee on top.

Pic source: Chitra's Food Book

The process of making holige is complicated and time-consuming, and requires an experienced hand. For this reason, to satisfy their sweet cravings, many families buy their holige from iconic outlets that prepare the dish using traditional recipes.

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Pic source: Cook with Kushi

Some of the best stores that make the sweet dish are located in Bengaluru, Karnataka. However, with several people now making a switch to healthier lifestyles, the demand for this mouth-watering dish, which is packed with carbohydrates and sugars, has reduced.

To keep up with changing trends, Ramakrishna Bhat’s Holige Mane, a 37-year-old shop located in a small lane of Bengaluru’s Ramakrishna Nagar, makes healthy versions of holige.

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Here, the dish is made using multigrain flour instead of maida; organic jaggery instead of sugar, and zero preservatives.

Pic source: One Teaspoon of Life

Speaking about this shift, Srinivas Bhat (57), the second-generation owner of the store, says, “While we also make the traditional type of holige, five years ago, we noticed that customers were curious to know if we had a sugar-free version or a millet-based version.”

“They wanted to eat traditional sweets, but also stay healthy at the same time. So we took up a challenge to make holige from aata (flour) instead of maida (refined flour).”

In 1986, Srinivas’s father Ramachandra Bhat migrated from a small village in Sringeri to Bengaluru to work as a chef. According to Srinivas, his father learnt cooking from his mother while growing up. He adds that Ramachandra was well-versed in making all kinds of south Indian dishes, especially sweets.

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While working as a chef in one of Bengaluru’s hotels, Ramachandra had the opportunity to cater for a large event. During this event, he prepared fresh holige to serve the guests, and the dish turned out to be a hit.

“Many people praised the holige he made, and he received many more orders. He realised there was a demand for homemade holige, which prompted him to start a business from home,” says Srinivas.

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Ramachandra launched the business by making two varieties of holige. One was filled with coconut and jaggery, the other with split yellow gram.

With help from another person, he would make fresh ones every day, package them and distribute them to sweet stalls in the city. Apart from that, he would also cater to private orders including weddings.

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As a young boy, Srinivas would watch his father make fresh holige daily, and even learnt the preparation method from him. In 2001, he decided to join the business.

In the last two years, we also received several enquiries for franchises, and orders from Chennai, Delhi and even the USA, the family says.

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The business is a perfect example of how to keep up with changing trends without losing authenticity.

If you wish to order their mouth-watering sweets, visit their website.

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