Mangaluru (The Hindu): Have you tasted a rare pineapple-lime soup and ‘mocha paaka’ which is a banana-based preparation?

They were among many Ayurveda and naturopathy-based food products which visitors could taste at the ‘AYUSH Habba’ which will conclude at Dr. Shivaram Karanth Pilikula Nisargadhama on Sunday.

The Department of AYUSH (ayurveda, yoga, unani, sidda and homoeopathy), Dakshina Kannada district administration and AYUSH Foundation, a city-based non-governmental organisation, organised the two-day conference from Saturday.

There was ‘pushpa phala paka’, a pumpkin-based food, ‘thumbi thinthidi vataka’, a tamarind-based product, ‘ambusara dadi vataka’, a banana and dahi-based product, and ‘dalmodaka’, dal-based product, among others.

The food was prepared by Alva’s College of Naturopathy and Yogic Sciences and Alva’s Ayurveda Medical College, Moodbidri.

Raghavendra Udupa, a professor at the Samhita and Siddhantha Post Graduate Department, Alva’s Ayurveda Medical College, told The Hindu that the 15th century work ‘Supa Shastra’ by Mangarasa had mentioned about how to cook different food. It mentioned about cooking paneer stuffed brinjal, making brinjal soup and how to cook mustard rice, among other food items. It had a chapter reserved on preparing food products from brinjal.

Mr. Udupa said that Mangarasa, who himself was a cook, had mentioned about how a kitchen should be.

He said that the same work had mentioned about how food should be prepared for a King, a Queen and a minister.

Mr. Udupa said that another work of 16th century ‘Bhava Prakasha’ by Bhava Misra had mentioned about which food should be consumed for which disease.

A teacher at the Alva’s College of Naturopathy and Yogic Sciences said that naturopathy-based food products were less spicy. They have less salt and less oil.

The ‘habba’ has many other herbal, plant based consumer products for sale. In addition, there was vegetables and other food products for sale.

Photo credit: The Hindu