INDIAN FOOD WITH FLAIR
Dosa the specialty of the house
I’d never heard of dosa before noticing Dosa & Curry Garden on Albert Street.
I was intrigued by the name: what does dosa mean? Turns out it means thin pancake in the Tamil language and it’s delicious.
At its namesake Regina restaurant, there are 15 varieties of dosa on the menu, including the family-sized dosa that’s three feet long.
“We grew up in a place where we ate dosa every day,” says Dosa co-owner Rajesh Jayakumar, who calls his restaurant “Regina’s passionate dosa maker.”
With partners Ranjith Gnanaprakasam and Karthikeyan Kalimuthu, Jayakumar moved to Regina from Calgary, where the trio worked together at Brewsters.
“We figured out there is no dosa spot over here in Regina,” says Jayakumar, so they decided to open one.
Dosa is on other Indian restaurant menus in the city, but it’s not a focus like it is here.
“Making dosa is our passion, so we wanted to follow our passion,” says Jayakumar, who opened Dosa on July 15 last year.
To celebrate its anniversary, more than 30 styles of dosa are available until Sunday.
The food originated in south India.
In Salem, in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, Jayakumar grew up eating dosa.
The thin pancake — made of fermented rice and black lentil dough — was breakfast most days.
Those dosa were smaller since there was no commercial griddle at home. The regular-sized restaurant dosa is about a foot-anda-half long.
But the process is the same. “Making dosa is not really rocket science,” says Jayakumar, who studied culinary arts at Toronto’s Humber College.
Madhu Chithambaran demonstrates.
The cook first seasons the grill with oil.
A splash of water tests the temperature and the grill smokes and pops before Chithambaran measures a cup of batter and pours it into the centre.
Using a flat-bottomed cup, he evenly spreads the batter in a circular motion until it’s mere millimetres thin across the griddle. The dosa doesn’t take long to cook and there’s no flipping involved.
Next, Chithambaran doles out the filling for the masala dosa — curried vegetables or paneer or chicken — in a straight line across the centre. He uses a big blade to lift the crepe’s edges, then rolls up the dosa on the grill. Perfection. He makes it look easy.
The family-sized dosa is another thing altogether. Keeping the behemoth in one piece is a challenge, but he manages.
Whether you opt for a plain dosa or one with filling, it’s served with three sauces: sambar, like a yellow lentil soup; coconut chutney; and tomato chutney. A green option is worth asking for, too — a zippy mint and coriander chutney.
Silly as it sounds, a dosa dropped off to a first-timer’s table is a bit overwhelming. How do you tackle this thing?
My date tried to knife-and-fork his half, while I picked mine up with both hands and ate it like a wrap.
People can eat dosa “however they want to,” says Jayakumar, but he prefers to use his hands, ripping off pieces to dip into the chutneys.
“It’s like how do you eat a burger or how do you eat a pizza, right?” adds Jayakumar.
“It’s nothing much to do with a spoon, fork and knife.”
Addressing the other part of the restaurant’s name, there’s a good selection of curries on the menu, veggie and meaty.
Among the appetizers, there’s Chicken 65, spicy boneless chicken that would go great with a beer — but Dosa isn’t licensed yet.
Jayakumar says they’ll be applying for a liquor licence this month.
After trying the zeera rice, which is spiced with cumin seeds, I may never eat plain rice again.
Among the desserts, there’s falooda, a milky pink drink topped with whipped cream. Rosewater flavoured, it tastes like liquid kulfi until you suck up chunks of red jelly through a thick straw.
Rounding out the menu are chaat (snacks), a few kinds of bread and Indo-Chinese options like fried rice and noodles.
Dosa offers daily lunch specials and a brunch special on weekends.
Find Dosa at 2143 Albert St. It is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.