Things are going south

Two of India's surprise obsessions, benne dosa and donne biryani, come from Bengaluru. Try both. It's not about history or bragging rights. It's just good food

- VIR SANGHVI

It's both puzzling and gratifying. Whenever you mention dosas to knowledgeable foodies, they look at you a little superiorly and ask, “But do you like benne dosa?”

A new restaurant serving benne dosa in Mumbai is jam packed, people look for the dosa in Delhi at Carnatic Café, and hotels are rushing to put it on their menus. There is a new snobbery about biryani too. But now, there is less snob value in talking about Malabar or Thalassery. The one to mention is donne biryani.

I find all this slightly mystifying but am, nevertheless, gratified because both dishes are closely identified with a city I love: Bengaluru.

I am not sure when these dishes became names to drop. I have been eating benne dosas in Bengaluru for years and whenever I mentioned this, nobody really gave a damn. Likewise with donne biryani, which I (perhaps wrongly) enjoyed mostly for the Bannur lamb, with which it can be made.

If you have not come across the benne dosa, think of the set dosas of South India. These are smaller, Thicker and spongier than the large thin dosas made famous by restaurateurs from Udupi all over India, and they’re often homemade.