Mangaloreans clearly love ice-cream. And not just any ice-cream, they love their own indigenous, home-grown brands of ice-cream. During our recent visit to this city we saw several ice -cream parlours, each serving their own flavours and varieties. To sample them all would have taken more than the couple of days we spent there, but we did manage to try what seemed to be among the most popular of them all- Hangyo! Very reasonably priced and not half-bad when it came to taste. For us it was a welcome change from the usual big city brands that we see all around us- many of which are international and priced accordingly.
But no one should leave Mangalore without tasting its famous ‘gadbad’ ice-cream which looked as interesting as its name. It is served in a tall class and there’s layer of creamy vanilla ice-cream at the bottom. Next comes a generous helping of chopped fresh fruits followed by a topping of strawberry ice-cream. This then is layered with an ample amount of chopped cashew nuts which you crunch your way through, along with bites of jelly. The whole is topped with a large scoop of kesar ice-cream. No fancy, exotic flavours, but a hearty combination that cannot be faulted. Nor is it served in an Instagrammy way with a selfie or influencer- friendly background. No way. What you see is what you get. You pick up the long-handled spoon and you dig in. And try not to linger because there dozens waiting in line outside the parlour for their turn at the 100 different scoops, sundaes and shakes that feature on the list.
There are two versions as to how ‘gadbad’ meaning chaos or confusion got its name: according to one- the parlour was low on ice-cream, customers were getting impatient so the owner asked the guy manning the scoops to just make a mish-mash of the remaining flavours, add fruits and nuts and serve it up. Which became a hit and customers asked for more.
The second and more believable version comes from the owner- Mr Y Prabhakar Kamat, who started this business in 1975 with just 14 flavours. He decided to experiment with them and come up with something different- and this is how the ‘gadbad’ was created. But initially the workers in the parlour could not get the combination of mix ‘n’ match quite right- which led to a lot of ‘gadibidi’ meaning ‘error’. So the gadibidi became ‘gadbad’
We visited the parlour on a rainy Sunday afternoon, braved the waiting crowds, took our token and stood in line. We were at # 43 and there were at least 20 people ahead of us. But we were undeterred by the gadbad outside because we were determined to sample the gadbad within. Nor could we take any spectacular photographs once we were served. One: we were too busy digging through the layers of ice-cream to get as much as possible in one go. Two: there really was no time, there was too much hustle and bustle around us and it pressured us to gobble up and go!
One thing’s for sure- the gadbad is popular across all age groups and an outing for eating ice-cream is a family affair. As we exited and waited for our cab, we saw an elderly lady hobbling out of the parlour, supported by (probably) her grand daughters on either side. Age definitely has no bar when it comes to the ‘gadbad’.
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