Karnataka is a state that lies on the western coast of India, its capital city is Bengaluru, formerly known as Bangalore. Kannada is also the name of the language most commonly spoken in this state. The major industry in this state is agriculture. Some of the most common crops include rice, sorghum, millet, cashew, cardamom, and coffee. In the east, sugarcane and various fruits are also grown.

There is not one sole “national cuisine” of India. Dal, according to Colleen Taylor Sen, author of Feasts and Fasts: a History of Food in India, may be the closest thing India has to a national dish. When we were exploring recipes for this project, we found a dal-like lentil dish served with rice in almost every region we studied, all under different names. One staple dish from the region is Bisi Bele Bath, which translates literally to "hot lentil rice". The dish is so commonly eaten that every family is likely to have their own variation on the recipe. Bisi Bele Bath is very similar to the dal that Blossom and I both grew up with, but with many more flavors layered in. For one thing, the rice is not cooked separately but with everything else, so the rice absorbs all the flavors during the cooking process. We tried it with papadum, a crispy fried lentil dough, as that is how it is often served. We found many of the ingredients, such as tamarind paste, jaggery, and the ready-made spice mix at a local South Asian grocery store. The spice mix powder itself has a whole lot of flavor packed into it, it contains multiple types of crushed lentils, dried coconut, sesame seeds, curry leaves, and fenugreek, among other Indian spices.