Doused in Ghee

Wining and Dining in five star hotels gets rather boring after a couple of times. You've seen one 5* hotel, you've seen them all. The trick to really enjoying local culture and blending into the real spirit of India is in doing things as locals do.

One of the things I discovered in one such gastronomic adventure was the freshly brewed coffee at the local Darshinis. Till date, I make a beeline to a tiffin house whenever I want some good coffee.

One day, a friend took me to Vidyarthi Bhavan in Jayanagar for ghee-dosa. I'm not a big fan of dosas, least of all one that's got ghee in it - what with my unsuccessful attempts at keeping the rapidly expanding waistline in check - but I tagged along anyway.

VB is a rather tiny place for one of the most popular dosa joints in Bangalore. They have strict timings too. Often, the place has a huge queue long before opening time (that's 6 a.m folks). I was rather amazed. What killed me though, came next.




A ghee dosa to end all ghee dosas! This dosa broke all traditional norms - it was small, it was crisp and brown, it was thick and it had ghee pouring out of it like sambhar. It was served with coconut chutney and some potato dish.

The mere sight of this plate was enough to fill my tummy. As my friend grinned at my deer-in-the-headlight stare, I gingerly poked a finger through the hot dish and pinched out a mouthful.

Once that morsel had passed my lips though, there was no turning back. It was about as tasty as it could ever get. I motioned to the waiter to keep them coming while I gobbled them up faster than you could blink.

After a mighty fruitful (or should I say dosa-ful) half hour, I was on my way out to the mall, fully tanked up to do some heavy duty shopping!

And the hell with the waistline!