Dosa in Dublin. That for the last few years was my daughter's favorite weekend outing. No we did not quite fly to the emerald isle to get ourselves a thin lentil crepe but enjoyed the preparation from an unknown chef that toiled in a suburban kitchen.
The town of Dublin (pop 50,000) is situated not far from our home in the east bay near San Francisco. Here originally a small band of Irish immigrants put roots and nostalgically named it Dublin. They even celebrate an annual St. Patty's day and have a parade. But it does contain a smattering of variety entertainment in the form of foods from other lands.
One such was Citrus Indian that opened up five or so years ago. Since we discovered it we have made it part of our regular visits - at least once a fortnight to get ourselves fed on delicacies from the south of India. Like most food joints in suburbia this one is non descript and once used to be a taco station. For some odd reason the demographic pull of Indians overcame that of those craving a taco (or perhaps the taco dude got cited by the department of health) and it transformed into a garishly painted, mispelled menu based, non cold water serving Dosa place.
The unknown martyr in the dark confines of what they call a kitchen was good at one thing though. Thin crispy Dosas. This delicacy if made well and served with a lentil and carrot based soup and a ground coconut chilli condiment is heavenly. The crepe itself can vary in diameter and crispiness, which in turn is based on how thick the final product is. The best is just lightly oiled with a golden brown hue and papery thin with a mesh like appearance indicating its airiness.
This product used to emerge from the dark kitchen, its avaiability signaled by a hand that stuck out and rang a bell. Then it took less than five minutes for my daughter to devour a five foot long oval roll of this sublime rice and lentil production.
On our most recent jaunt we found a new face to disinterstedly show us our table, took our order without lack of any enthusiasm and proceeded to serve a limp, much tinier version of what they call Dosa.
We immediately realized what must have happened what with new plastic flowers in the brass vase being a tell that the management had changed - again. Only this time the chef in the dark had forever vanished with the management. Could this go back to being a loco Taco?
Cool cat the Japanese are Tokyo at dusk My second visit to this land of the rising sun after almost a decade. Back then clearly I was wet behind the ears product manager and likely didn’t pay attention to all (efficient) things Japanese. But today I did and of course continue to be impressed. It is as much the obvious stuff like on time travel that is both clean and comfortable and all that which makes it possible. The impressive landmark and landscapes that these humans have put together despite their cramped (or because of it) surroundings and precarious geological conditions could amaze a novice architect among us. But it’s also the little things that someone had to think about which have a phenomenal impact on day to day lives that make the Japanese stand apart. Below are few random examples- 1. Providing a very fine machined wooden toothpick in every packet of wooden chopsticks. The said chapsticks are simply set on the To Go counter of any food vendor/ convenience store wher...
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