Opinion Masala in the dosa
A traditional dish gets a new take, with invention spicing up modern cooking
masala dosa, crispy crepe stuffed spiced potatoes, south indian food 
As a multinational fast-food chain announces it will soon launch a “masala dosa burger”, Indian foodies are clutching their foreheads and stomachs in shock, despairing over too much culinary mixing ruining the broth — or here, the burger bun/dosa batter. But why this tangy chutney of indignation at the innovation? The masala dosa, after all, is a many-splendoured thing, one of India’s most inventive dishes, always metamorphosing into delicious new forms.
Unlike, say, rice and daal, the masala dosa comes cloaked in the glamour of a thousand rumours. One urban legend says the masala dosa wasn’t created in cosy homesteads at all but actually dished up in Udupi restaurants, where clever cooks used spare potato bhaji, folding this in a light, crisp, savoury crepe. This “masala dosa” was a huge hit; but it didn’t stop at one chewy avataar. Constantly innovating, the masala dosa features in hundreds of variants, localising, specialising and targeting individual customers well before multinationals learnt how to spell “idli”; versions include the paneer dosa, khakhra dosa, cheese spread dosa, even mutton-fry masala dosas. There are ragi and oat dosas for health nuts — and there are pizza dosas for those who prefer taste over waist.
Why be mealy-mouthed over meals evolving anyway? Modern gastronomy means mixing, blending, breaking rules and combining cuisines, dishing up a brave new world of food, from bacon ice-cream to vegetarian chicken, foie gras falafel to charcoal chocolate. The West may be loving fusion cooking now but India has been a master-chef at this for decades. Remember, we invented the dhokla pizza, tandoori momo, paneer enchilada, masala omlette sushi and that most brilliant of culinary creations, which even slides cheekily past a stony Great Wall — gobi Manchurian. A masala dosa makeover is just a cute starter for us.
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