One of my fondest childhood memories involve this dish. I have eaten the Egg Stumbler for as long as I can remember. My mum used to make this for us very often and it served as a breakfast cum anytime meal which could be put together in a jiffy. As you know scrambled eggs by themselves are a nutritious snack, add to it a handful of cubed bread pieces and what you have is a complete meal in itself. So filling, tasty and nutritious.
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While in Mangalore I used to live in the vicinity of ‘Vitthi’s Sugarcane Shop’ – a shop which was so famous among school students for the amazing sugarcane juice, Maggi and egg stumbler that Mr. Victor used to dole out everyday. Who is Vitthi then? Well, we Mangalorean Catholics have this habit of reducing fine English names to a rubble. We snip the ends and localize them and the final result of a person’s most respected name does not even remotely sound like the original, save maybe for the first initial. For example Victor becomes Vitthi, Elizabeth becomes Elize or Lizzie, Gregory becomes Gigu, Dominic or Domingo becomes Doonnga, Philomena becomes Minna, Dulcine becomes Docchi, Steven or Stephen becomes Itti  (for goodness sakes!!!). The surnames are not spared either! The list is endless and if you are a Mangalorean Catholic reading this, I bet you are smiling – for you know another dozen names to lengthen this list. Trust me, the list is endless, the best names have either gone through a metamorphosis over the decades or some of our Konkani singers have successfully ruined their credibility by crooning them over & over again. Remember, “Belaaaaa, Isabella”? So people from my generation hesitate to christen their children with some of these fine names for the fear of being ridiculed in public with these songs. Or maybe I am the only one with this fear. When it was time for us to name our son, we had gone through this painful process of vetoing every name that could be reduced to something else in Konkani, had a song to its credit or simply had double meaning. Sigh!
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Ok, so back to Mr. Victor a.ka Vitthi’s shop – I am sure that beside the usual crowd in Mannagudda (the area where I lived) who savoured it, even students who came regularly to Mangala Stadium for sports got the chance to eat the egg stumbler. Most passersby entered his ‘cafe’ on getting just a whiff of his heavenly scrambled eggs. The word ‘stumbler’ probably came into being because most people could not pronounce ‘scrambled’ – they either said ‘scrumbled’ or ‘stumbled’ – so you can use your imagination here.
The way Mr. Vitthi made his Maggi was very different from the package instructions – so much so that people in my neighbourhood started to replicate it in their homes. Sugarcane juice was another among his 3 crown jewels and I don’t really recall tasting it there because I had another favourite shop in the local veggie cum fish market at Urwa. These three items on Vitthi’s menu card were by far the most famous ‘healthy’ street snacks that I can think of. They satisfied many a student during a meal break. I wish Vitthi’s shop was still around (a small open hall with 6-7 long ‘baank’Â (wooden benches) that could fit in 7-8 youngsters at one go, each one hungrily devouring his snack while Vitthi would squeeze the life out of the sugarcanes in the juice extractor and serve you a tall glass of chilled sugarcane juice) but sadly it closed down after his death and remains so till date.
May his soul rest in peace.
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Egg Stumbler (Scrambled Eggs with Bread Bites)
A street style wholesome & hearty breakfast option also called as bread & egg 'upma' in India.
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Ingredients
- 4 eggs
- 4 slices of bread
- 1 large onion finely chopped
- 2 medium sized tomatoes finely chopped
- 1 medium sized green chilli finely chopped
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
- 1/2 tsp red chilli powder * see notes
- 1/4 tsp pepper powder
- 1/2 tsp cumin/jeera powder
- 1 tbsp coriander leaves finely chopped for garnishing
- 2 tbsp oil
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Break the eggs in a bowl and beat well. Trim the sides and cut the bread into cubes. Keep aside.
- In a heavy bottomed pan/kadhai, heat the oil and toss in the chopped green chilli and onions and fry till the onions are almost golden. Add the chopped tomatoes and fry for a couple of minutes till mushy (add salt at this stage to speed up this process).
- Add the turmeric, red chilli, pepper and cumin powders and fry on a low heat. Pour in the beaten egg mixture and stir on a medium low flame for about 2-3 minutes taking care to see that they don't get scorched.
- When the eggs have cooked just right *see notes, add in the bread cubes and mix gently.
- Garnish with chopped coriander and serve hot.
Notes
You may use white or brown bread as per your choice, ensure that it is fresh but not crumbly.Adjust all the spice elements (green chilli, red chilli powder & pepper powder) as per your taste. You can skip the chilli powder if you have low tolerance to spice.Eggs need to be cooked just right - neither undercooked nor too dry as the bread needs to absorb the juiciness slightly to give the right taste. Make sure you had a wee bit of extra salt because once the bread is added the whole mixture could taste bland - It will be harder to adjust the salt after the bread has been added as the bread can turn soggy soon. This dish needs to be prepared and served fresh and piping hot as the bread can turn soggy if prepared in advance.
Disclaimer
The nutritional values are only indicative.
Tried this recipe?Please leave a comment & rate the recipe below or share a photo on Instagram and tag me @ruchikrandhap
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Shireen this looks amazing and very new..
This looks lovely … I will surely try this for breakfast tomorrow
Jesna Fernandes
Cherishable memory…love this anytime snacks very much..
Clever idea to add the bread cubes. I would love toasted bread cubes for the crunch 🙂
Looks very good.
Never heard of a stumbler before Shireen…..must try it….looks really yum…..
Love your narration. Had a good laugh imagining vitthi squeezing life out of the sugarcanes and in background students eating on baanks.
Hey, you got a nice space…loved this recipe, its a childhood memory for me too and now as mom I give it too often to my kids 🙂
Shireen, I tried it today. Yum.. Yummy… Enjoyed it! Simple and tasty!
Thank you!
we call this in Udupi as Bread Masala… mostly found one old hotel near MGM ground and in some road side food canteen near City Bus Stand
Exactly vikram… We called it bread masala… and it takes me back to the childhood days. .. love the combination of egg along with bread and the masala…gonna do this today…
@ Vikram & Melanie: Different places, different names…it's my favourite too!
I guess Vitthi's family has rented out the premises to a tender coconut shop now. We relocated to Mangalore 15 years back from Udupi. I have been wondering about the origin of the word stumbler.
Thanks for the recipe and the article
@ Sector0: Yes, it has been rented out to a tender coconut vendor now. Nice to know that you are now in Mlore! Glad you liked the recipe, thanks for writing in!
Loved it. I made it this Sunday for breakfast. Thank you
Thanks a lot for your feedback! Glad to know that you liked it 🙂
Quick easy and tasty
Thanks a lot for the feedback Asha!
Thanks Shireen, I stumbled on your recipe after deciding to use up a loaf of bread that I needed to get rid of. I only looked it up on google after I had cooked it thinking someone must have a better recipe with these ingredients. Mine was scrambled eggs, diced bread, chilli paste, minced garlic – pretty much all I had on hand (probably came out a little bit more saltier and oilier than I would ‘ve liked). I am looking forward to trying your recipe as mine was kind of a bachelor throw together meal 🙂
Happy to hear that Danial! Thanks for sharing your feedback!
Thank you for sharing the stumbler recipe Shireen. I recollect having this at a small shop near Bunts hostel at Mangalore in the early 80’s. Wonder if it still exists?
Thanks a lot for your comment. I am not aware of the shop near Bunts hostel, don’t recall seeing it. Considering that Mangalore has been through a lot of changes I doubt it still exists
Nice description.memories, nostalgic.it adds spice to the dish rather than the recipe. There is similar shop near Chithra theatre ‘appu shet’s angadi’ where, some call this same dish as ‘tumler’ or ‘tumbler’
Thank you so much! Nice to know abt Appu Shet’s angadi. Is it still operational? Must try then!