South Indian breakfast at its most famous. A thin, crispy crepe of fermented rice and lentil batter wrapped around spiced potato, served with coconut chutney and sambar. Vidyarthi Bhavan in Gandhi Bazaar has been making the same one since 1943 and locals will argue with anyone who claims a better one.

Literally 'hot lentil rice'. Karnataka's version of khichdi, but spicier. Rice, lentils, vegetables, and a spice mix that includes cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg, finished with ghee and cashews. MTR's version is famous enough that they sell ready-mixes for people who've moved abroad and miss home.

Mornings in Bangalore don't really start without it. Dark-roast coffee mixed with chicory, brewed slowly in a metal filter, poured with hot frothy milk. Served in a steel tumbler set inside a wider bowl called a dabarah. The trick is pouring it back and forth between the two to cool it and build a head of froth. The ritual matters.

Steamed rice cakes paired with fried lentil donuts. The idlis are soft, almost weightless. The vadas give you the contrast, crunchy outside, dense inside. You eat them with three chutneys (coconut, tomato, mint) and a bowl of sambar. Light enough for breakfast but filling enough to skip lunch.

Traditional Karnataka food made from finger millet, shaped into soft round balls the size of a baseball. You eat it with sambar, chicken curry, or mutton curry. Outsiders take a while to come around to it. Locals grew up on it and love it for the nutrition. One bit of etiquette, you break off a piece and swallow it whole without chewing. That's how it's done.

The name is misleading. These are sweet, fluffy fried breads made with mashed banana and a hint of cumin. Crisp outside, soft and slightly chewy inside. Good with coconut chutney or sambar. Originally from the coast but a fixture of Bangalore breakfast menus now.

A rice flour flatbread mixed with chopped vegetables, onions, carrots, coriander, green chillies, then patted out and cooked on a griddle. Every household and restaurant tweaks the recipe. Some add dill, some add coconut. Eaten with chutney, pickle, or just butter.

Sweet flatbread filled with jaggery and either lentils or coconut, wrapped in wheat dough and roasted thin. Served hot with ghee or milk. A festival dish for most Bangalore families. The conversation around whose grandmother's recipe is best can take up an entire afternoon.

Spicy roasted peanuts named after Congress political meetings where they used to be served. Coated in gram flour with chilli and garlic. Genuinely hard to stop eating once you start. Vendors sell them in paper cones at bus stops, parks, and markets.

Named for the plate, the thatte, they're served on. These are wider and flatter than regular idlis and come from Bidadi, between Bangalore and Mysore. Spongy and slightly tangy, the kind that soaks up chutney and sambar. People drive out to Bidadi specifically for these.

A Mumbai import that Bangalore took to immediately. A spiced potato dumpling deep-fried and stuffed into a soft bread roll with chutneys. The IT crowd kept it alive in this city. Now there's a stall on most major corners near tech parks.

A combination plate, one half sweet, one half savoury. Kesari bath, a saffron semolina pudding, served next to upma, savoury semolina with vegetables. The contrast shouldn't work but it does. Covers most breakfast cravings in one go.