Get a dosa this: South Indian breakfast staple gains ground in Waterloo region

A southern Indian dish that is traditionally served at breakfast has made inroads in Waterloo region as a delicious lunch, dinner or snack.

The crispy, golden dosa is often made from a fermented rice flour and lentil batter that is quickly cooked on a hot flat-top, stuffed or layered with a variety of ingredients such as seasoned potatoes, scrambled eggs, ghee and even pizza flavours.

While most local Indian restaurants have traditionally focussed on northern Indian cuisine, evolving population demographics have seen a recent uptick in restaurants serving the crepe-like food.

"Dosas are very popular in Tamil Nadu, a state in southern India, where everyone eats it. From babies to someone 85 years old," says Vikram Subramanian, owner of Jayalakshmi South Indian Cuisine in downtown Kitchener.

India is a country with diverse regional cuisines, but Jayalakshmi's dozens of dosas are made in the fashion of Tamil Nadu province, and specifically the city of Coimbatore, according to Subramanian.

In the Lexington Road and Marsland Drive area of Waterloo, Shiri Madireddy has been making dosas at Shiri's Kitchen for several years now and was among the first in the area to do so. She's noticed the growing number of Indian restaurants that are making dosas.

"It's more popular now even for Indian people as well as everybody trying dosas," says Madireddy. "Everywhere in the world, I would say. It's a wholesome food. People will try a couple varieties at a time."

Both Subramanian and Madireddy point to a universal truth about food, including dosas: people from a specific heritage initially frequent a restaurant serving the food of their culture and not long after restaurant-goers from a wider range of cultures, hearing word-of-mouth or through social media, start trying out the menu too.

Madireddy says it has made the Indian and southeast Asian restaurant scene suddenly a much more competitive one.

On busy days, she says that Shiri's Kitchen will make about 100 dosas; the most popular is Mysore dosa, from the city in southernmost Karnataka state, stuffed with masala potato and served with spicy red-chili chutney.

Elsewhere, although the list in not comprehensive, in Cambridge there are ten dosas prepared at Dakshin Authentic South Indian Cuisine with double that served at Handi Biryani Indian Cuisine.

In Kitchener, Raja Chettinad Fine Indian Cuisine and Maha's South Indian Kitchen, a takeaway off Park Street, serve several varieties of dosas; Shiva's Dosa Restaurant in the Williamsburg neighbourhood makes nearly two dozen varieties.

In Waterloo, there is Dosa Eatery and Classic Indian, which makes a half-dozen dosas.

Dosa Twist on Weber East Kitchener and on Northfield Drive in Waterloo are relatively new additions to the dosa scene preparing two dozen dosas plus kids' dosas.

In Guelph, there are dosas at Fusion Authentic Indian Cuisine.

At Jayalakshmi, named for Subramanian's mother, chef Raman Kondappan tests the flat-top grill for the right heat with splashes of water which splutter angrily before evaporating almost instantly.

He next pours out a cup of batter and, in concentric circles, creates a crepe more than 30 centimeters in diameter.

In seconds, the batter turns a deep golden colour with a lacy texture; he adds ghee clarified butter and other ingredients and then expertly peels the dosa off the hot iron and rolls it into a tube.

Speaking in Tamil, Subramanian asks Raman about how he prepares the batter, a process that takes a couple of days: grinding the grains in a large machine, blending the ingredients, and adding seasoning. 

"The dosa mixture marinates and ferments for at least one day," Raman says with Subramanian translating.

Precise process

The seemingly simple cooking process, however, requires skill and experience: get the timing wrong and the dosa doesn't work out.

"I can't make them as well as Raman," he says. "The batter consistency and the heat of the grill have to be just right or it changes the flavour of the dosa."

When a dosa is cooked properly, the result is a beautiful golden disk with a nutty flavour – the exterior concentric circles crackle and fracture with crispiness at the same time its interior has a pleasing chewy texture.

Tear off a piece and use it to scoop from small bowls of tomato, coconut and lentil-based sambar chutneys.  

The dosa is a relatively light morsel to eat. Both Madireddy and Subramanian extol the healthy nature of the dish: it's gluten-free, can be a good vegetarian option, and it provides some protein, the latter of which make dosas a good breakfast food.

"In Tamil Nadu, people go for a walk, and at five a.m. restaurants will be full while the air is cooler," Subramanian says, adding that his goal is to eventually open Jayalakshmi earlier in the day.

But he adds, with a gentle laugh, that there are cultural – and climactic – differences to grapple with.  

"My future plan is to open earlier, perhaps at seven a.m. Even with more people coming to the region from southeast Asia, five a.m. would be tough because the cold weather here makes everyone a bit lazy, I guess!"