Tale of two south-indian breakfast dishes (09-Oct-2022)

Dosa or Upma are both 4-letter popular dishes and there ends their similarities!  Innumerable theories can be put forth to gain one upmanship of one over the other. 

Starting point for a Dosa is a thought!  Various ingredients in stated proportions that are soaked in water throughout the day offers quick beginning of ensuing process steps.  These ingredients when subjected to few runs in a mixer-grinder yield a batter of optimal consistency.  Soaked overnight, fermentation kicks in to cause raised levels.  The owner earns a good night’s sleep to dream a dish that caters to the entire family.

Starting point for an Upma is action!  Rava is roasted in a pan and boiling water is added with continuous stirring to prevent knots.  Garnished with chillies and a few other seasonings – bingo, the steaming dish is ready in a jiffy.  Variations do exist with the starting ingredients to cater to a variety of taste buds.  An old proverb goes: Hot upma is consumed by two, while the cold one serves six!

Dosa batter attracts salt in optimum quantity in the morning for right taste.  Batter when spread on a hot pan into circular shapes using a ladle, and with right sprinklings of oil or ghee or butter, the crepe in its crisp or soft form when it achieves a golden colour is palate ready.  Accompaniments in the form of chutney in varieties add spice and spruce up the dish.  The Masala Dosa (MD) avatar with special potato curry inside the crepe makes it a scintillating dish.

Upma leaves an aromatic atmosphere when the preparation is complete.  It assumes the shape of the transferring container when served into a plate.  A coconut chutney is a welcome side-dish.  It assumes avatars based on vegetables used to add taste, the onion upma being the most favoured.  Complemented with its twin avatar in a sweet form – Kesaribath, this dish assumes a new nomenclature – Chow-Chow bath.

Dosa in all its forms and sizes earn the plaudits – people proudly declare they are enthused to work-up an appetite to devour.  Upma though has a dubious distinction with reference as ‘concrete’ –keeps the stomach full for the rest of the day.  When upma is announced at breakfast, many in the family feign an excuse – not hungry, or indigestion being the most common. 

Choice of one over the other is a matter of convenience too – dosa reduced to a sequential activity while upma offers mass production as its forte.

Yours truly spent a decade in USA.  During student days there, dosa was neither planned at home due to its involved process nor ventured out at a restaurant due to its prohibitive price.  Hence, my craving for dosa swelled.  On the other hand, I considered upma my bête noire; even though, during growing-up years my mother created an amazing dish with diced onions to enhance its taste.  I nicknamed this dish as 'kettu (bad) uppittu' but then it moved a few notches up on my list solely due to the rarity factor in USA.

It is another story that I became a victim of circumstances during my bride-hunt.  Prospective brides’ mothers subjected me to their ‘athithya (hospitality)’ with fresh upma and coffee.  But my allegiance to dosa did not waver!

Perched at the top undisputedly for me is dosa in all its avatars!  Do we vote to decide the winner or leave it to our palate to douse the hunger pangs and the cold war between them when served on our plate?!  Be rest assured that time will not tell!