Mysore Masala Vs Madras Masala

Posted on February 2, 2004 18:14 PM EST

Until recently, I did not know that there are two kinds of masala dosas! Mysore masala and Madras masala. I am not considering other variations like Rava Masala here. Just talking of the basic masala dosa. Funny I had to come to the US to know that difference. We visited the San Franciso Bay Area over the Martin Luther King Day weekend. One day we dined at Saravana Bhavan and the next day at Udupi Palace. And that is what led to discovery of the difference. We hogged at both places like MGPs (Male Gluttunous Pigs).

I really liked the South Indian breakfast food at Saravana Bhavan. It was much better than any other place in the US, where I have eaten South Indian breakfast dishes. However, except for the coffee, I thought some key factor was lacking in all the other dishes we had there.

Next day at the Udupi Palace, I really loved the breakfast food. THIS was the South Indian breakfast I was deprived of in the US. I was singing high-praise of the food to my two Tamizh friends, who nodded their heads in agreement. And then I told them the food in Udupi Palace is better than Saravana Bhavan. They opposed me with immediate assertive force. It was then that I realized even within South India, among the same dishes, there is a difference between how it is made in Tamil Nadu (where my friends come from) and in Karnataka (to which I belong). The difference in tastes was most discernible in the vada-sambar and the masala dosa.

The menu at Udupi Palace cleared the doubt for us regarding the masala dosa. There is apparently a Mysore masala dosa and a Madras masala dosa. When the Mysore masala dosa is prepared, it is smeared with some red hot masala mix, where as, the Madras masala dosa does not have this masala.

My friends tried to convince me that Madras masala dosa is the authentic masala dosa. My question was, if there is no masala, why is it even called masala dosa. I declared that masala is not even a Tamizh word and so, Madras masala dosa is not authentic. Ha-ha! My friends did not know what to say, except to fume at me.

I will be grateful to dear readers if they can confirm my mere hunch that masala is not really a Tamizh word and provide me with the pure Tamizh equivalent. I will even buy that reader masala dosa if we ever happen to meet in a town with a South Indian restaurant.

Meanwhile, I am grateful to both Saravana Bhavan and Udupi Palace for providing so far from home, South Indian food, which is good enough that we were arguing about the subtle differences in taste and semantics of the word masala rather than getting depressed over the lousy taste of dosas, which is what happens at most other Indian restaurants I visit in the US.