india: more dosa (14)

at last, this past weekend, i was taken out on the town for my second South Indian meal. much to my delight, the grad students accepted that, after a week of acclimation, i was now ready for the 'Real India' dosa restaurant. a quick auto-cab ride left us at a small corner joint that was (quite literally) overflowing with people. we stood by the hand-washing sink near the entrance to the kitchen to wait for a table, in order to maximize our proximity to the group that looked closest to finishing up (no line-ups or priority by time at which you arrived whatsoever, obviously). i think we actually sat down at the table before one of the men had finished his coffee, but amidst the constant traffic of busboys and waiters and customers, no one had a chance to notice.

this week, again, i ordered a masala dosa to start. how could i not, after hearing from one particular grad student that this was in her opinion THE BEST masala dosa ever? to be completely honest, i have not sufficiently developed my palate for masala dosa, and was unable to distinguish between this week's and last week's. regardless, it was delicious. crispy outer layer of pancake, spongy warm inside of pancake. perfectly spicy potatoes and veg inside. this time though, they served it with both the coconut condiment and a coriander condiment. i asked the grad students what the name for these were; i'm told 'coconut chutney' and 'coriander chutney'. so much for exotic. then, we ordered a second round. this time i went for an onion dosa, but also got to sample an idli. idli is a round white cake/loaf-type thing which i was told is made of fermented grain flour. i would liken it to matzoh balls, or some kind of ethiopian spongey bread. very bland, but functional as a carbohydrate. my onion dosa was much more flavourful. this time, instead of wrapping the dosa around the potato like a burrito, the onions were actually cooked into the pancake. the dosa was then folded in half. came with the same condiments. i was again, VERY full after the 2 dosa. but, why have only 1 dosa when in India for only 1.7 more weeks?

to finish, one of the barefoot busboys brought a stack of squares of newspaper. this was to wipe our hands; a step down from the warm water and lemon finger bowls we got at the restaurant last week. but hey, it works! we each had a very tasty coffee, served in a little tin cup resting in a little tin dish. you are supposed to pour the coffee back and forth between the cup and dish to allow it to cool, and then drink it from the dish. i thought the dish was like a saucer, and accidentally missed this whole process.

after this very satisfying meal, we walked a couple of blocks to Asha Sweets, where i had a spectacular Indian Dessert Adventure. i'm still doing a little recon for this post - need to find out names and main ingredients of each selection - but it will be coming soon, complete with photos.