Adai's with Grace

My friend Magiceye not only enjoys the various varieties of south Indian Crepe/dosa varieties, he has the patience to actually click deliciously focussed pictures , before getting mobilized to devour the stuff.

Adai's are  a special variety of high protein crepes or dosas, not as thin as the standard dosas that are even stiff at times.   Three types of lentils, and rice, soaked for several hours and then ground together with seasonings. Very filling, very traditional and very yum with some terrific chutneys.

A golden happening. And it seems quite possible that the adais got their nomenclature from an urdu word !

Dosabhai,
fresh from worldwide appreciation
tended to forget
his origins
particularly
in the company
of a puffed up Idlibai.

He hadn't counted
on the granddames
of Dosa Society,
who held firm views
on the flibbertigibbet paper dosas,
who always behaved stiffly
and unfriendly,
breaking into pieces
at the slightest movement.

And so arhar amma,
udad amma, and chana amma,
immersed themselves
seriously in the proceedings
and  nicely soaked,
got minutely
crushingly involved,
really mixing well
with
scintillating item numbers
like
salt
red chillies,
bright turmeric,
green curry leaves
and asoefoitida .

A good stir with the ladle,
and its like the
conservative ammas
take a palloo over the other shoulder
maturely leading the way
on to a hot oiled gridle,
to create a
great "adai."

Perhaps
so called
because
it has to do with the
delicate "adaa"'s
displayed
by the ammas.....

Dosa Lives !

Seeing such a wonderful photograph of a lovely thin paper Dosa kind of brings a smile in the morning, as you sip a cup of coffee. :-)

Once again confirming my suspicion that my blogger friend Magiceye  has his Camera attached somewhere to take automatic pictures when something smells, looks and tastes so good .....

And then sometimes you wonder what the Dosa might be thinking of its own life ....

It came to me, initially in Marathi, and later on in English...

As they say in French, Bon Apetit ......:-))

(photo by Deepak Amembal Magiceye)

आयुष्यात किती विविध अनुभव येतात .
आणि
काही आयुष्य किती क्षणभंगुर असतात ....

एक शुभ्र डाळीचे आणि तांदुळाचे लहानपण,
पाण्यात डुंबत डुंबत केलेई धमाल,
आणि दगडी उखळीत एकत्र एकरूप होणे ....
रात्रभर एकत्र केलेल्या गप्पा ,
बुडबुडे येई पर्यंत हसणे ,
आणि
मग एका गरम तव्यावर
सोनेरी आत्मा समर्पण करून ,
चटणीच्या गावा जाणे ...
कडक चटका लावणारी गोष्ट .....

Such
multifaceted lives
and
momentary liives.

Childhood friends
Black split hulled beans
and fragrant rice;

Hours spent by both
playing wildly
immersed in water
and then
urged to come together
diversely,
in a stone grinder
to teach them unity.

Hours again,
spent in covered secrecy,
giggling and bubbling
in mirth,
and then
one day,
harakiri together
on a hot burning griddle,
dignified ,
golden and stiff
as
they are transported
to the
Land of chutneys....

Slurp, Spice and Burp

To be able to keep away from something as mouth watering, hot and spicy, on a cold winter day and take photographs while someone else demolishes stuff, is something my friend G obviously does with great elan......

Read her post about it here.

(photograph by Gunjan)

Like old ageless
traditional
gold
permanently
enhanced by
soft wrinkled
vibhuti and haldikumkum
habituated skin.

Its now the turn
of
a mature rice
and an obedient
udad dal,
ground and waiting
in a warm peace....

A hot gridlle,
a quick
threadbare spread,
and the two
create some crackling magic,
attracting
the likes of
spicy mashed potato;
dripping
with
a comfort chutney
and
sambhar joy,
on a bed of green...

And the old
ageless
golden
crinkly eyes,
indulgently watch,
and nod
at the plantain leaf,
as he
wipes it clean
with the last dosa piece....