Finally! Dosa

It's now going on more than 2-and-a-half years since I've been back from New York, and yet it took me that long to finally make it out to Dosa. Chalk it up to getting a mixed bag of reviews—some fantastic, others not so much—thrown at me from different sets of friends. Well, the visit was way overdue, and thanks to my cousin, MC, I hit the South Indian eatery on Valencia a couple of weeks ago ... and I liked it a whole heckuvalot.

The theme: Fried.

* Fried sliced onions seasoned in chickpea batter, garnished with cilantro and flash-fried curry leaves
* Fried prawns dry-rubbed in ground chickpea, chiles and other spices, sitting on organic micro greens


* Dosa's cod special, also fried I think. Super flakey and moist, bathed as it was in a zesty green cilantro curry.


And of course, the fried breads:

* A dosa, similar to a crepe, but about 7 times the size; it came with helpings of tomato and coconut chutney, and sambar (a lentil-based soup you dip the dosa into)
* Poori, deep-fried disks of bread made from whole grain durum wheat that puff up when they hit the hot oil.

Heaven.