VV Puram

There’s a lot of dosa content out there. I was looking through my photo gallery to find all the iconic dosas I’ve eaten in my life (which I need to talk about eventually) and was reminded of VV Puram.

One of our favorite family dinner spots in Bangalore was VV Puram (Vishveshwarapuram – didn’t know that’s what VV until I googled it just now. WoW). It was far away from where we lived and parking was a pain but it was a little street with 4.2 million vegetarian food stalls packed so close to each other that you could never tell where one stove began and the other ended. This place was also always crowded – a function of how good the food was, how densely packed the stalls were and how small the street was. To ensure an optimal experience that maximizes satisfaction and minimizes friction, we’d craft a carefully thought out plan of attack based on both ours and friends’ prior experiences. We mapped out spots we needed to hit, who would wait in line where and rendezvous points.

Thinking back, I’m impressed at how effective our plans were. With COVID, and standards for hygiene at all-time highs, I don’t know if this place will stand the test of time. I really hope and pray it will and for when it does, here’s the most common route we took:

Stop 1: Dosa (duh)

I can’t tell you the name of the stall because I don’t remember if it even had a name but this was always our first. The husband and wife that ran this shop had very efficiently divied up responsibilities. She would take our orders and cash while he made the dosas. Intermittently she would refill the containers with old, ghee and batter. The first stop was one we hit as a family because they were always quick to serve us and nothing is better than a piping hot dosa. Our order was always a mix of some plain dosas and some masala dosas, each served with chutney and doused with ghee that the husband would shoot on to the hot stove using a plastic bag filled with ghee and had a tiny hole.  

There are these long and frequently argued debates about which style of dosa is the best between the states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. As someone who was born in Chennai, TN and lived in Bangalore, KA my whole life, I’m obviously the authority on this matter. Karnataka dosas are better. They’re thicker, fluffier and butterier. Davengere (sp?) is a town somewhere in Northern Karnataka that is known for its benne dosa (butter dosa). They plop like 4 or 5 of these coin sized blobs of butter while the dosa is cooking and then serve it with a super buttery mashed potato and I can’t think of anything now that I want to eat more.

I may or may not have been to this place but this is what I’m picturing.

Since we’re on debates, there’s another heavily debated issue about the best sambar to accompany dosa. Karnataka does a sickeningly sweet sambar and Tamil Nadu does a spicy and satisfying (normal) one. Based on that description, I feel like it’s pretty clear where my loyalties lie. Maybe I’d be on board if it was both sweet and spicy. I’m not sure yet. Something about that 3 tablespoons of sugar per teaspoon of sambar ratio is just off, don’t you think? Even within my own family, we’re divided on this issue. My brother is a big proponent of the sweet sambar and I strongly believe he is clinically insane. I tolerated it once or twice when we ordered dosas as an after school snack from Rama Darshan – this place across the street from my parents’ office – because the masala in the dosa was super spicy and the two sometimes complimented each. I was also young and naïve then. I’m less ambivalent now.

Stop 2: Akki Roti

After that LONG digression, let’s get back to the VV Puram action plan. After the dosa, it was often most efficient for us to split up into teams. My mom would hold down the fort with my brother at the primary rendezvous point and dad and I usually would usually shuttle to the various stalls to procure second entrée for the group. Mine was often akki roti – another Karnataka specialty. There was this spot by the end of the street on the opposite side as the dosa place that had such yummy rotis with an eggplant curry and peanut chutney that I also absolutely loved. Akki roti is still high on my request list every time I go home and my makes a pretty mean one. She always has to make more peanut chutney because my dad and I are hogs.

Stop 2a

While akki roti was a crowd favorite, they also had Indo-chinese food and chaat. If I recall correctly (and I doubt my family reads this so I have no one to fact check me), we leaned more heavily towards chaat.

Stop 3

After that 2 course meal that we ate standing up (I don’t think I mentioned this yet but looking at the crowds, felt like this was a given. Be prepared to be nimble), we needed to fuel our bodies with dessert. Dessert typically had two options and these were conveniently located right next to each other. One sold sweet chapattis. At least that’s what I call them and I think in they are actually called obbattu(sp?). Sweet chappatti is a pretty good descriptor. The other place was called Shivanna Gulkand Stores and had gulkand ice cream. I haven’t really heard of gulkand outside of that context and I don’t think I know what it really is but I’m going to attempt to describe it (I have my food writer hat on after all). It’s this brown jammy thing that tastes like sugar and rose. I also just googled this and it was not an invention from the streets of VV Puram. It’s an Indo-Persian delicacy. My explanation, however, seems to be pretty spot on. Wow. Two for two.

At this point, you’ve got four fat and happy campers. All that’s left is to walk back to our car and fall asleep on the car ride home. A great way to end a great night.