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:

khoofia: 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.