Bengalureans champion dosa eaters, topping the nation

BENGALURU: Ghee-rich dosa or folded in half with golden-brown exterior, dosa is the top of the menu in Bengaluru, the city that’s hardwired to revel in eating dosa and its many variants any time of the day. The IT capital is also home to the gastronomic evolution of the humble plain dosa to its classic versions like masala dosa, butter variant, set dosa and onion dosa.
Hyderabad and Chennai are the other two big southern cities, which, too, seem to love the crispy dosa as much, if not more.With World Dosa Day being celebrated on March 3, there’s no dispute that Bengaluru is emerging as the dosa capital of the country.
The humble dosa has had many twists in flavour and presentation. Some connoisseurs prefer chocolate dosa, pav bhaji dosa, noodles dosa, Schezwan chopsuey special dosa, American chopsuey dosa and paneer dosa. Yet, it’s the classic dosa with crisp exterior and butter-smooth inside is what wins the day. And the dosa natter is all about consistency in batter. Sadananda Maiya, founder and CEO of Maiyas Beverages and Foods, said, “Bengalureans have always referred to Vidyarthi Bhavan dose, CTR dose, Maiyas dose when they pick their favourite dose joint. There is hardly any reference to idli joints colloquially. It’s all in the batter –it’s a combination of rice, urad dal and methi seeds here, whereas Tamil Nadu will follow a different batter mix. A few years ago, we used to sell 1,000 doses daily with the dose being crisp on the outside and soft within.”
This was confirmed by PC Musthafa, chairman and global CEO of ID Fresh Foods. He said, “If you get the dosa batter consistency right, it’s easy to make it. We sell 1.5 lakh kg of dosa batter daily that translates to 3 million dosas in a day. The secret sauce is in the batter for a crisp and delicious dosa.”
For lovers of statistics, here’s a dollop of numbers: Bengaluru has ordered twice the number of dosas than Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata combined. Chandigarh, despite professed love for parathas, has embraced masala dosa as its favourite dish. Dosa was also among the most ordered dishes in smaller towns like Ranchi, Coimbatore and Bhopal, besides another IT hub Pune.
The prime time for dosa cravings is during breakfast hours followed by dinner. Chennai has the strongest affinity towards dosas for dinner, while people of Hyderabad enjoy it as a favourite snack-time dish.
In the past year (Feb 25, 2023 to Feb 25, 2024), food-delivery platform Swiggy said it delivered 29 million dosas, where people ordered an average of 122 dosas per minute for breakfast alone.
A customer from Coimbatore has emerged as the dosa champion of the country, ordering 447 plates of dosas in the past year. Dosa was the second-most ordered dish during Ramzan, cricket world cup and IPL, and the top vegetarian dish ordered during the Navratri season.