Rarely, in any of my trips, in any part of the country am I so kicked about early mornings. But that changed during my trip to South India. In a matter of 6 days, we covered Chennai, Madurai, Rameshwaram and Kanyakumari, and while there was much to admire in each of these places, what truly made the trip special for me was my zeal to wake up early in the morning, just so I could treat myself to the yummy breakfast fare. I have lost count of the different kinds of dosas, vadas and idlis I had during my time there, but some of these did leave a long-lasting impact. Dosas, are India’s much beloved crepes that have many avatars. Dosas are such an intrinsic part of South Indian cuisine, that the mention of the same can also be found in ancient texts like Manasollassa, a 12th century Sanskrit encyclopedia compiled by King Someshwara of 12th century AD.  

Today, dosas are found across the country, and people have also taken many liberties to play around with the dish. Cheese to chocolate to noodles, what all have we not tried stuffing in our dosa and because dosa is such a forgiving recipe, every permutation and combination almost always works. Yet, there’s something about classic recipes that continue to hold their charm. One such traditional dosa I tried in Chennai was the curd dosa. Also known as Pernagu dosa, this dosa is not particularly crisp. Even though it is very thin, this is a dosa that is renowned for its sponginess more than anything. This remarkable difference in textures comes from the batter used. The regular rice or dal-based batters that you ferment overnight often you yield you dosas that are crispy. Whereas in curd dosa, the batter is fairly simple and uncomplicated. Typically made of rice flour and/or poha and curd, this batter does not need hours-long fermentation. The active cultures present in curd helps the batter rise up in no time.