What is Garelu?

Garelu are savory fritters made from urad dal that has been soaked, ground into a thick, airy batter with almost no water, and shaped by hand into rings before being deep-fried until golden. The rest of India calls them vada or medu vada; Telugu people call them garelu and consider the ring shape a matter of pride. The batter gets green chili, ginger, black pepper, cumin, and sometimes chopped onion or curry leaves, and a well-made garelu is crunchy outside and fluffy inside. At breakfast they arrive with coconut chutney and sambar; at festivals they come plain, because they're being offered to a god first. Dunked in yogurt and left for an hour, they become perugu garelu, a cooling variation that is arguably better than the original.

The technique is where reputations are made. The batter has to be beaten until it floats when dropped in water, and the ring is formed on a wet palm or a piece of banana leaf, the thumb punching a hole in the center before the whole thing slides into hot oil. Shape is everything. A lopsided garelu still tastes fine, but it will be commented on. On Vinayaka Chaviti and Varalakshmi Vratam the count matters too — garelu are offered in specific numbers, threaded on a string as a garland for the deity in some households, and for ancestor rituals they're made without onion and served on a leaf. Restaurants in Hyderabad and Vijayawada sell them by the dozen from morning tiffin counters, and every Telugu wedding breakfast has a station where they come out of the oil faster than guests can take them.