This is the kind of food festival where you must give fine dining etiquette a pass and set aside fork, knife and spoon.
Instead, use your fingers. That’s the best way to savour the texture and flavour of dosas on offer at Dosa festival at Park Plaza.
Every day, diners are served about 25 varieties of dosas, from the regular onion and masala to more innovative ones such as a Chinese chilli mushroom dosa and a dosa kebab roll. All this is courtesy the hotel’s new executive chef, Arulselvan.
Arul is back on land after a decade working in the high seas. His cruise liner experience is visible in the mix of flavours and style of presentation. He’s made some interesting dosa wraps for the salad bar. There’s Apple’s Law Dosa, a lovely twist to the coleslaw — juliennes of apple dressed in creamy mayonnaise and wrapped in a dosa. The dosa kebab roll brings together the crispness of a dosa with a melt-in-the-mouth kebab.
And then, there’s Arul’s star creation, a pizza dosa filled with tomato sauce, bell peppers/meat and loads of cheese.
In the vegetarian section, the Chinese chilli mushroom dosa is the star. Imagine sweet-spicy mushroom manchurian inside a dosa…
Then, there’s neer dosa, from Mangalore, pesarattu from Andhra smeared with delicious gongura paste and even a fried dosa.
Non-vegetarians can choose from Mumbai kheema dosa, kaadai Chettinadu roast dosa, egg dosa and chicken tikka dosa. There’s lacy aapam served with stew (vegetable and mutton) and coconut milk too.
The best part of the fest is the accompaniments. Just turn from the dosa counters and you have four varieties of chutneys (tomato, coconut, pudina and groundnut) and sambar rich with drumstick and shallots.
You could also choose to dip your dosas in creamy paneer or mixed vegetable gravies.
A nice thing is that the dosas are not super-sized. So, you can comfortably tuck in at least eight to 10 varieties before calling it a day. But, not before sampling some of the fruit-filled crepes on offer. You can get one custom-made, filled with either sauces (orange, caramel, grape, kiwi and vanilla) or custard and fresh fruits or dried fruits.
The fest is open for dinner and concludes on September 15. It is priced at Rs. 777 (nett) for adults and Rs. 399 for kids.
For reservations, call: 0422-2626030/4523030.
