Bangalore, the dosa destination

BANGALORE: Ask the waiter for the day’s fare, refer to the menu or glance at the old wooden board listing the restaurant’s specials for the day. It generally starts with the idli and ends with coffee/tea, through the kesari bath, khara bath and the dosas. Though not on the top of the list, the dosa today has become Bangalore’s top-of-the-mind dish.The dosa varieties in Bangalore’s restaurants were generally limited to three. First, the generic masala dosa, which is essentially a crisp golden brown roll, with a fluffy and perforated interior which is plastered with a red, fiery paste and filled with potato, onion curry. Secondly, the plain dosa, which is essentially a masala dosa devoid of the filling and then the khali dosa, with neither smearing nor filling but a white, fluffy perforated dish, which is served in pairs. A few restaurants also offered the paper masala dosa, which is an oversized variant that leaves everyone staring at the table that has ordered it. Then, along came the set dosas, which always come in threes, the onion dosa and the rava dosa. A few restaurants then made some cautious innovations, not in the sacred base, but in the filling, with green peas and cashew nuts joining the potato-onion curry. The sagu, a vegetable gravy, was a later innovation. And then the Davangere benne (butter) dosa which invaded Bangalore’s restaurants, became the new rage.The dosa has become such an obsession for the Bangalorean that there are restaurants that beckon patrons by professing to specialise just in this famous dish. And now, roadside vendors too have got into the act with carts offering 99 varieties of dosas, prompting a wise soul to remark why they couldn’t still think up of the 100th recipe.The dosas now come in mindboggling variants like Chinese and Mexican and are as famous for these innovations as they are for their accompaniments with one shop even offering chicken curry.And among the dosas, it’s the crisp, crunchy, golden brown masala dosa that decides the restaurant’s worth. The outlet may make the best idlis or coffee, but its self-esteem relies heavily on the quality of masala dosas it tosses up, with old timers swearing by their brand and having their own opinions of the others.Today, for the Bangalorean, having a masala dosa is not as easy as heading for his favourite neighbourhood restaurant and digging into the roasted roll. There are as many restaurants as there are varieties of the famous dish.[email protected]