Indignation - the rightful kind..
Sunday, March 23, 2008 at 10:41PM Well, these days there is rightful and wrongful indignation. This is a documented case of the "rightful" type!
Went to this South Indian food place and asked for the usual Rava Dosa. Got it in 3 minutes, which is a surprise, considering it usually takes at least 10 minutes to 15 minutes from order time.
Got a dosa that had a lot of Rava in it. But the batter was definitely the regular dosa batter!
Now, if you are not picky about a dosa and would consider anything round and crispy brought to you with a cup of sambar and chutney as fair game, stop reading this post. You may not be amused.
On the other hand, if you know enough about Dosa's to answer a quiz question "What is the difference betwen a Rava dosa and Plain dosa?" with anything more than "The Rava dosa has rava in it!", read on.
If you consider yourself to be the Sankara Saastri of Dosa's, this post will definitely increase your heart rate, pulse rate, stomach acid secretion rate, etc. etc. You already know that the basic ingredients in the plain dosa batter are rice, urad dal and fenugreek (vendayam) seeds while the Rava dosa is made from rice flour and rava (cream of wheat) with some green chillies, ginger, cashews, black pepper thrown in as added attractions (the additional ingredients vary widely!)
There is also the issue of fermentation. While the plain dosa batter gets its taste from leaving the batter overnight to rise (yeast action), the rava dosa batter is almost whipped up instantly with some buttermilk to help with integration!
So, if you get a rava dosa, you should not expect it to taste like a plain dosa. In other words, you should not detect the urad dal or yeast.
Now you can always tell me "so what? think you ordered a sada dosa and they put rava in it by mistake.. just eat it!". Which brings us to the "rightful" part. The average bay area restaurant charges 5 bucks for a dosa and 7 bucks for a rava dosa. The 1.5x price is usually due to the complexity and time consuming nature of the rava dosa manufacturing process, compared to the plain dosa. In effect, it is a custom order!
Now, if you throw a cup of rava in plain batter and give it to me in 3 minutes and charge me extra for it, I might ask you to put "kalpooram" in your hand and do deepa aaradhanai!!!
ps. I was at one time moderately allergic to urad dal. Which is why the choice was always a rava dosa! Not anymore..
pps. Not naming restaurant yet, because the owner is going to spot check the cook and let me know if this was really happening!
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Indian food, dosai, price, rava dosa, sada dosa, south indian food, taste
Reader Comments (4)
Rava dosa'la ipdi alwa koduthutaangala!
Aaana neenga romba ushaar!
nambala maanga madayanga-nu nenachuttanga pola irukku! yedhu poattaalum sapiduvoam-um nenaichiruppan cook!! Is he in for a surprise!! Do tell us the outcome!
If this is the fate of rava dosa which is famous as 'instant dosa', then what about others? These people know how to cheat efficiently. BTW, do you think the restaurant owner is unaware of the recipe and that he will give you an honest answer?
I didnt know there was so much to a dosa ! But then you have made it amply clear. Rava rising. Should i say !!