Sunday, September 05, 2010

The dosa gets my vote

Four hungry people. One Giant Paper Dosa. Lots of coconut chutney, and lots of sambar.

Paper Dosa at Sunder's, Kabutarkhana, King's Circle

Have you tried sharing a paper dosa? That first crumbling of the perfect cylinder shape, the vain attempts to preserve some semblance of orderly eating...until chaos descends and everyone is just eating whatever crumbs they can find? What fun :)

Ordering four separate dosas just isn't the same, is it?

Sunders is a regular stop on my forays to King's Circle market. Apart from the paper dosa, they serve a wacky menu with several different dosa varieties (including a schezwan dosa).

They do a decent masala-dosa as well. I'm not a big fan of the masala-dosa. But it does seem to have found its place under the sun. Food writer Nilanjana Roy gave the masala dosa her vote for "national dish of India" in an article in Outlook earlier this year. She says: The dosa has crept into our lives in a quiet revolution, a stealthy and entirely bloodless coup. It can be found in dhabas in the Himalayas, stuffed with exotic ingredients in five-star restaurants...It can be stuffed with paneer, or with chicken and keema fillings for the unregenerate carnivore, but it’s the masala dosa that flies its flag across India. You can even, experimenting with spinach and carrot fillings, create a suitably tricolour masala dosa, while retaining the potato stuffing that is the trademark of the true Udupi stalwart. We can continue to argue over the rest of the menu for a genuinely nationalist Indian banquet, but for the moment, the dosa gets my vote."

So what say? The masala-dosa as a national dish? Sacrilege? :)

If I were to think about Bombay, instead of the whole country, then here's my list of the top three popular eats in the city:
- Vada pav
- Bhelpuri
- Dosa

(Yep, the dosa, gets *my* vote too)

15 comments:

  1. That Dosa looks perfect ! reminds me of a 6 foot dasa they used to make at VGP Golden Beach ... wonder if its still on ?

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  2. In Pune it would be:
    -Vada Pav
    -Pav Bhaji
    -Misal Pav
    -Dosa

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  3. mmmm i so wanna try tht and im not even that big a fan of dosas

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  4. I can't look beyond the picture! I am drooling at the dosa.

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  5. Anonymous4:37 AM

    Dosas & Sambar! Yum-yum-yummy! It's been so long since I had some. I live in a part of town where it takes some planning to get this and now, I think I must do that planning--NOW!

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  6. Completely agree with you! Long live the dosa so that we can eat it forever!

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  7. Anonymous10:58 PM

    Deepa,

    I recognized the pic!!

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  8. Yes, but who are you? :)

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  9. Anonymous7:13 AM

    I am the one in your pic!! The dosa was delicious and we were the ones to enjoy this particular one!

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  10. Why is Pani Puri not in ur TOP 3 Deepa?

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  11. Shobna10:56 AM

    You ignored divinity by ignoring pani puri

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  12. Anonymous9:15 PM

    Hi Deepa. I am from Calcutta. Long before the concept of rolls, noodles and burgers became popular as fast food on the go, the typical south indian joints would roll out the dosas in a jiffy and most calcuttans looked upon them as a fast food option (and a cheaper one too price-wise. So the Dosa may not be seen as a national dish but definitely it is Calcutta's most popular fast food choice even today.

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  13. Which hotel has this lovely dosa, please let know....its seems yummy... :)

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  14. It's Sunders, in Matunga market (King's Circle), near the kabutarkhana.

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  15. Is that Shree Sundars or just Sundars? Two of them with a common name but the first one is bigger and better with lots of delicious varieties of dosa and some great stew with appams too. Just love this place.

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