User:NavjotSR/Mitra Samaj

Mitra Samaja is a vegetarian restaurant in Udupi, Karnataka, India. It is located on Car Street very close to the Krishna temple. The restaurant serves authentic Udupi cuisine.

The most famous dish of the restaurant is Goli Baje, a South Canara delicacy. The hotel is also well known for its masala dosa and coffee.

History
Nittur Gopal Holla was born in Udupi in 1928 to Bhagirathi and N Seetarama Holla, a master cook from the orthodox Shivalli Madhwa-Brahmin community. Gopal Holla inherited his father's culinary competencies and was instrumental in serving tens of thousands of people on the occasions of several Nagamandalas and Rashi Puje.

In 1949, aged 21, he started the Mitra Samaj in Car Street, Udupi. Originally started as a tea shop, it graduated to a hotel serving snacks and then meals. In Udupi, being Lord Krishna's temple town, the use of onion and garlic was a taboo in and around the temple premises. The earlier pilgrims, mostly Brahmins, would eat food cooked only by their own community, that too in madi – in wet clothes after their morning pooja.

The non-usage of onion and garlic continues even today at the Mitra Samaj, now run by Holla's youngest son, Achutha Holla. The sweet delicacies on sale at the hotel - badam (almond) halwa, godi (wheat) halwa, kushmand (pumpkin) halwa, khai holige (coconut pancake), and kadlebele holige (bhuna chanadal pancake) are still prepared at Achuth Holla’s home in the old customary way.