#3 – Masala Dosas: There is always a weekend plan and sometimes ambitious weekday plans to explore masala dosas in this lovely city of Bengaluru.

Exceptional masala dosas usually come in a standard template- cooked using fresh batter, with a delectable mix of mashed potatoes, onion, green chilly, and magic, laced lavishly with butter or ghee. They are accompanied by Karnataka style sambhar or Tamil style sambhar or no sambhar. But one or more chutneys definitely give the masala dosas a company, like a true friend! On varying intensities of hunger or mood swings, the accompaniments can stretch to vada, kesari, halwa and much more. A masala dosa simply topped with a filter coffee shall also get the day’s work done for you!

It is a simple food that gives a lot of joy. The unassuming, affordable, and amicable dish is a witness to a lot of emotions in this city!

In recent times I have heard stories where Masala Dosa has propelled people to success! When Chandrayaan mission put India on the global news, it also highlighted Masala Dosa. “We cracked it by offering a free masala dosa and filter coffee at 5 pm every evening. Suddenly, everyone was happy to stay on longer.”

In Udupa Foundation’s Layatharanga music event, the accomplished singer Vijay Prakash mentioned how he and percussionist Jayachandra Rao used to do practice sessions after work and head out later to relish Masala Dosas at midnight.

There are places open in midnight, early morning and anytime of the day to provide masala dosas and a share of interesting stories. Vidyarthi Bhavan intrigues you by the act of balancing, the waiter carries 20+ dosa plates, neatly stacked in his arm. CTR ,in Malleshwaram, is also a famous outlet, where one needs to wait in a queue for almost an hour to order its legendary masala dosa, Mangalore buns and bonda soup. Taaza Thindi paves way for simplicity by taking the ordered food and sitting under a large tree. You can have a rendezvous with masala dosa amidst a zillion people who are doing the same.

My favourite story on masala dosa goes like this, one day I was having piping hot masala dosa, accompanied with chutney and vada in Asha Tiffins. While sipping filter coffee, I was watching the beaming cherry blossom enfolding a temple architecture across the street. I clicked a picture and uploaded it in Instagram. In the course of that day, my friends and family replied to it asking if this was the place I took them for breakfast last they visited. When I affirmed, they shared reminisces of the delicious masala dosa they had. My mother, who despises me for ordering in or going out for dosa (whose batter never runs out in her household), saw the photo and told me in excitement – “You should take me there next time I visit you!