A chicken curry of coconut milk and roasted red chilli, poured over crisp, paper-thin wafers of dried rice that soften as you eat.
What makes it kori rotti
Rotti: dry, crisp rice wafers.
Gassi: coconut, roasted red chilli, coriander seed and tamarind, ground to a paste.
Coconut milk to finish.
Poured over the rotti at the moment of eating.
Where it comes from
Kori is chicken in Tulu, the language of coastal Karnataka, and kori rotti is most associated with the Bunt community there. The rotti are brittle wafers of rice, made and dried in advance and kept for weeks; the gassi, the curry, is ground fresh with coconut and roasted Byadgi chillies — deep red, but not as hot as it looks.
The gassi goes over the rotti at the table, and the trick is to eat it before the crunch goes.