I went to a hotel with my spouse to eat a dosa. The waiter reeled off, “We have masala dosa, vegetable dosa, paneer dosa, paper roast, set dosa, onion rava dosa, tomato onion uthappam, capsicum masala dosa, …” I stopped him, “Two plain dosas, please!” The waiter looked at me as if I were an economically backward citizen subsisting on subsidies.
Two large dosas precariously balanced on small plates arrived with three chutneys and a bowl of sambar. I had to hurriedly fold the dosas to avoid them brushing the table top. “Don’t expect me to dish out three chutneys at home when I make dosas,” warned my wife.
Some like dosa served as per their specifications. An uncle and aunt of mine visited us the other day. When the wife enquired about their preference for dinner, the aunt said uncle ate dosas with chutney. Accordingly, my wife made dosas with chutney and invited them for dining. The aunt opened the lid of the bowl and inspected the contents. “Uncle likes to eat dosa hot from the tawa.
You have to make them one by one and place it on his plate. Oh, this chutney is green in colour. Uncle likes only white coconut chutney. If you have grated coconut, I can make pure coconut chutney for him,” said the aunt. The wife did not like to be challenged on her culinary prowess. She went to the kitchen and prepared a bowl of fresh coconut chutney, omitting coriander and curry leaves that she had added to the earlier version. She made fresh dosas after uncle sat on the table and placed one after another on his plate, hot from the tawa.
Years ago, a boss from Mumbai landed in Coimbatore when I was stationed there. He wanted to eat kal dosa. His friends had bragged about the soft, fluffy kal dosa made with tender coconut water that they had eaten while on a visit to Kovai. Those were days when technology had not progressed to such a level to locate places that served such dosas.
Two assistants from the office set out to find out which hotel served the said dosa. After a few hours, they came back and reported that a hotel on Trichy Road served that dosa. I took the boss to the restaurant. When kal dosa arrived with chutney and sambar, the boss devoured it like a child gorging on a triple sundae with great enthusiasm and asked for a few more.
P Subramanian
Email: mailpsubramanian@gmail.com