Indian Coffee House, Nehru Street

I wanted a masala dosa. These lentil and rice crepes filled with spicy potatos and served with coconut chutney and sambar are delicious. You can find them everywhere, but some places are better to go to than others. My colleague Vidya told me a great place to go was the Indian Coffee House on Nehru Street, "very famous", she said. I told Leslie this is where I was planning on going and she said, "Agh! That place is so old and run-down! It was there when we came in the '70's, and it was run-down even then. Why do you want to go there?" After these words, I knew this was exactly the dive where I wanted to go.

Many of these authentic Indian eating spots are sort of like canteens with bare tables and plastic chairs. There's not too much going on other than people eating food, and you know the good ones by how busy the place is. Sort of equivalent to an American Diner. Indian Coffee House was the place to be on a Sunday morning! It was hopping with people who were sipping their sweet milky coffee and eating dosa and idli.



It seemed to be the fashion to spill your coffee on your saucer and drink it from there. Most Indians drink their coffee in little metal cups which are quite hot when full of coffee. Therefore you always have a second metal cup so you can pour the coffee back and forth to cool it. This also froths it in a nice way. I was guessing that the saucer phenomenon was branching from this tradition.

So the dosa was quite yumsters, and served with TWO types of coconut chutney! I'm going back, next time I go I'll drink from my saucer.