Photo credit: me.
You know how sometimes it seems you can’t do anything without causing some kind of fuss? First it was the Lake Champlain Chocolate Kerfuffle, and now this:
Last week I went to lunch with A at a Diva, an Indian restaurant near my office and was pleasantly surprised to find mini-dosas on the buffet table. I snapped a photo and sent it to a friend to make him jealous that I’d had such a treat for lunch. (Before anybody starts in, there is absolutely nothing abnormal about photographing your food. Just ask this guy or this one. Some lucky people make a living doing it!) This was my second plate at the buffet and the tandoori chicken leg was included for scale. (I ate it, of course.)
Apparently it was a slow news day, since he turned around and posted my photo on his blog under “Honey, who shrunk the dosa?” and racked up 200+ often heated comments. Here are a few:
: the violently oblique trajectory – but in many parts of the world, street vendors [from thailand to the philippines] are reducing portion sizes in response to rising grain prices. the picture actually represents one of the presumed root causes – the dosai, or the grain product, is increasingly a smaller portion of the diet as more people are adding non-vegetarian products to their meal.
Tamasha: Mini dosas are crisper, just the way I like ’em. Plus, it’s the buffet. Get over it. 😛
RC: The rise of commodity prices is largely due to the STUPID ethenol policy put in by Dubya. I mean is that anything that this government can do right? They have completely messed up the agricultural market of the whole world by this stupid ethenol idea.
Neale: Where is India’s Mason-Dixie line and what is it called?
Portmanteau: gee, that was so meta. a dosa is a dosa is a dosa. well done! to think that i missed the subtle gertrude stein reference.
Manju: I’m opposed to this burritozation of the dosa. dosa’s should be ripped and dipped (btw, notice no sambar in the pic?) and the inner fillings scooped up to control chutney or potato distribution.
…and a whole lot of stuff that was way over my head about the history and culture of different parts of India. I spent some time trying to figure out if any of these people were angry at me for eating the wrong dosa the wrong way, but gave up in confusion.
Behold, the power of lunch.
I do like the Diva, but sometimes it’s hit or miss. For dinner, I like to get the vegetarian extravanganza or whatever it is called. Have you noticed that the 3rd line down on your cloud tag is “photo eating”? Your next step or calling?
I think Diva and Namaskar in Davis are both a step up from the Indian restaurants in Central, in style if not in substance, but if you invest the time to comb the comments on Sepia Mutiny, they have some recommendations that we should probably check out. My top pick is Tanjore in Harvard square.
re Photo Eating: I think that you can have your photos inkjetted (sugarjetted?) onto cakes and cookies now. Low res, high calorie, and creepy. To wit: http://www.icingimages.com/
You should hear what myself and the other foody “tagged” in your post are going to be getting up (food blogging wise) in a month. It’s pretty exciting…
OK, just one more – last one, I promise:
Comment #229 by pingpong: Bechara dosa too shrunken? Haven’t had any hot masala stuffing? Perhaps some herbal products via Agra might help.
All indian food in Boston area taste the same. Most of the restaurants are owned by two Punhabi families. I think their Chachi and Chacha are back home in Punjab cooking and shipping big vats of food on weekly basis.