Dosas: A Tale of Two Cities

As promised, I want to write a couple of posts about my brief stopover in New York on my way back from Spain.  I met up with my wife, N, who had been studying at Columbia Teachers College for the summer.  After a month of Spanish food, I craved something, anything, not made with olive oil.

As is often the case when we're in New York, I especially craved Indian flavors, in particular South Indian snacks like dosas, idli and sambar.  For those of you unfamiliar with the amazing snack foods of South India, here's a quick primer.  First, they are all vegetarian.  Second, most of the dishes originate from versions of the same batter, which is made from a type of lentil, urad dal, and sometimes rice that are soaked, ground and fermented overnight in a process similar to making sour dough.  The batter can be shaped into dumplings and steamed (called idli, sometimes spelled iddly), shaped into doughnuts (vada/vadai) or balls (bonda) and fried, made into thick pancakes (oothapam) or large thin pancakes (dosa/dosai).  In restaurants, all are usually accompanied by coconut chutney and a bowl of spicy sambar, a stew of toor dal (another type of lentils, sometimes called pigeon peas) and vegetables.

To get our fix of South Indian food, we headed to Murray Hill (dubbed "Curry Hill" by the locals for its abundance of Indian eateries), around Lexington and the high 20s.  It was a Monday, so a lot of places were unfortunately closed.  We noticed a lot of Indians eating in Dosa Hutt (102 Lexington Ave. at 28th St.), which may or may not be the second location of the well-known South Indian restaurant of the same name in Flushing, Queens.  Regardless, everything we ate here was perfectly prepared, although considerably tamer than what I have had in India.  My butter dosa (cooked in butter instead of oil) was so tangy and crisp yet tender that we ordered a second one.

Coincidentally, a week later in the Bay Area, on our return trip home from Tassajara Hot Springs, we stopped over at Dasaprakash (2636 Homestead Rd., Santa Clara) to get another fix of the delectable dosas.  Dasaprakash is, in our opinion, the best South Indian restaurant in the San Francisco/San Jose area and belongs on our Short List.  How did they compare?  We were split on this one.  I preferred Dasaprakash, because the flavors were more authentically spicy--incendiary would be more apt.  N, who for some odd reason prefers that her food not scorch her taste buds and bring tears to her eyes, liked Dosa Hutt a bit better, but agrees that Dasaprakash is more authentic.

Here's an insider's tip about Dasaprakash (notice how I put it on the second page, because I am hesitant to reveal it):  try to go on a Thursday night so that you can order the housemade amritakala, the most amazing Indian dessert I have ever tasted.  Sadly, we went on a Wednesday and it has been years since I have had the good fortune to eat it, so I can't give a description that would do it justice.  Even if you do not usually like Indian desserts, I am willing to wager that you will like this buttery confection.

Comments

[Becks & Posh]

ok - i have to go to Santa Clara
I love south indian food
although my experience of it is only really from London and Kennedys Irish Curry House so far.

[Melissa]

Hi Brett, I'm really curious about this amritakala, having the insatiable sweet tooth that I do. I've never heard of it before and googling doesn't produce any hits - is it their own creation? What exactly is it? Does it go by any other name?

[Brett]

Hi Melissa, as far as I know, the name "amritakala" and the recipe are both unique to Dasaprakash. I've tried prying the recipe away from the owners to no avail:( Although I've only had it once several years ago, if memory serves me correctly, it's made up mostly of ground nuts (cashews?) and lots of butter and flavored with saffron. From what little I know of Indian sweets, it may include fresh cheese (channa in Bengali), similar to a sweetened, drained ricotta. Neither my wife, who is Indian, nor I have ever had anything quite like it, even in India. Just glanced at your site and loved it, by the way. Next time you visit your family, try to pop down to Bay Area and sample the sweet at Dasaprakash--remember, Thursdays only.

[tara]

One of my favourite restaurants (and fondest childhood food memories) is of Hotel Dasaprakash's thali meals in Ooty, in India. When I saw a dosa establishment of the same name in this post, I could not help but grin.

[Brett]

Tara, thanks for dropping by. What a fun place to grow up! N and I spent part of our honeymoon in Ooty and adored it.

[Alison]

any dosa huts or restaurants in san francisco that you know of?

[faustianbargain]

hey..its probably way to late to comment on this blog entry..but for what its worth..amritakala is made with coconut cream, milk, sugar, ghee and saffron. i add cardamom too. the key is timing and the heat so it sets properly more than the ingredients which are rather straightforward.

i made a batch today...i didnt know that it was called amritakala, of course. someone mentioned dasaprakash's version and i googled to see if there is any comment about it online.

[Venkatesh Iyer]

Dasprakash is one of the best restaurants. We really love Dosa very much.