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Senate candidate Jim Webb (D-Va), surrounded by macacas, makes a dosa. |
SM reader Anup tips us off to the fact that Jim Webb (who is of course running against George Allen in Virginia) tried his hand at dosa-making in an obvious move to appeal to the macaca voting bloc.
In Richmond, Webb was also subdued, campaigning with Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, a fellow Democrat, at the Festival of India.
Webb sipped drinks indigenous to India and posed for photos, stopping at one booth to help pour the batter to make a masala dosa, a spicy South Indian crepe.
“Jim just made the best dosa anybody has ever made,” Kaine told hundreds of festival visitors. Webb did not address the crowd.
Webb’s presence left the festival co-chairman, Ranjit Sen, to reflect on remarks Allen had made in August that belittled a 20-year-old Webb volunteer of Indian descent at an Allen campaign stop. [Link]
But the question is did he have have a bowl of sambar on the side? Failure to have sambar with his dosa may cost him many desi votes. It is the same way that John Kerry lost a bunch of Pennsylvania voters when he stupidly ordered Swiss cheese on his Philly cheesesteak. If I ever run for office I will never be seen eating dosas. If word got out that I don’t like sambar and that I spread equal parts ketchup, sour cream, and green chutney on my dosa I’d be finished.
Do you SEE? Do you SEE why we were DOOMED? Eeeeeeyuck! Vote Sambar in ’06!
That’s impossible. My mom makes the best dosa.
chai just flew out of my nose at that. 🙂
Seconded. And while we’re at it, Dosa and ketchup? Maybe Maggi brand TomPudina or SpicyTom…. but seriously, Don’t hate on the Sambar.
“Drinks indigenous to India”? What would those be? Arrack, Thumbs Up!, Limca, Fruitee?
Don’t hate y’all. The sweetness of ketchup, the sourness of cream, and the spicy goodness of lili chutney all combined and spread over a slightly crispy dosa is amazing. It is very similar to how Salk discovered that fungus on an orange was actually a very good thing for humanity.
The question is not whether he had a bowl of sambar on the side. It’s whether he had an ample supply of Gas-X to get him through the rest of the day. The true test of his desi convictions is how he handles the gastric aftermath of desi food…esp. south indian food.
Desi, please. ALL brown food comes with a shady aftermath, not just that amazing goodness from the dirty dirty.
I can’t BELIEVE I get dirty looks for bypassing the thenga chutney/sambar and dunking my mysore dosa in rasam, when Abhi eats…that. 😀
indeed…I stand corrected.
How can you expect me to not hate?!?!?! This is a culinary abomination. It’s like putting sugar in yogurt or Old Bay in channa (Actually tried this. Old Bay tastes good in just about everything I’ve put it in, but not channa).
And did the dosa induced courting of the macaca vote seem to reek of desperation to anyone else?
o! but there be such a risk to partaking sambhar on the side. there’s all these EXOTIC add-ons… I’m never quite sure what to do with it. I remember having sambhar with a professor and he got this cluster of leaves in it and he assiduously tore it apart with a fork and chewed it down. God forbid he should have come up with the sticks and dried leaves and pods – you know what i’m talking about?
unknown #1: it’s like this hollow dried stem with a serrated perimeter. it looks like okra but it really is a really un-juicy stick. you can barely chew on it. maybe it’s like the desi Daton for cleaning teeth out.
unknown #2: this really dried thick flat leaf. cant eat it. if you do, it’ll stick in the throat. (i know)
unknown #3: this large black pod that if you bite into just spreads this really bitter taste in the mouth.
i suppose the genius of the cooks is that put it all together and brew this in a large vat – and the sambhar is delicious, but individually – these things can poke an eye out or tear a hole in oesophagus.
I beg to differ. Sugar is good in just about anything. I will admit that I have also put homemade coconut chutney on ice-cream (ok, coconut sorbet). It was durn good 😉
NO! THERE MUST NEVER BE SUGAR IN THE YOGURT! weeps
true desperation would have been if he showed up wearing a dhoti. 😉
Has anyone tried to have bread dunked in sambar? It amazing…
unknown #1: drumstick- muringaka. my favorite. you have to eat it like an artichoke leaf, i.e. pull it through your teeth.
unknown #2: curry leaves- karriapila. i’m not sure if this is what you’re referring to, since it doesn’t get stuck in my throat…then again, i masticate. 😉
unknown #3: asafoetida- khayyam. never, ever eat this. it’s very necessary for proper sambar awesomeness, however, so i respect its right to residence in the cooking pot. 🙂
Don’t you like tasting a little sugar in your yogurt, Anna ?
smirks lasciviously
you rock…puliogre happy.
There are 178,000 Asians in Northern Virgina (some 8% of the state’s population — link to university study), including a large number of Indians. Northern Virgina tends to vote Democratic. Webb needs all the help he can get.
NO! I like very sour yogurt, which is why I hate most versions of kachiya moru I taste.
whistles innocently
gasp!! what about honey? brown sugar? vanilla extract? fruit? marshmallow fluff? not even for breakfast?
I agree-no sugar in the yogurt-sour yogurt is great esp when you make kadhi/karhi and majjige-huli/moru-kozhambu. but lil’ sweetness tastes just fine in boondi-raita/dahi-vada :). there are plenty many people (like my dear bro) who have yogurt with sugar.
and i know just as many people who have dosai with ketchup, jam, peanut butter etc 🙁 so Abhi, you have company.
enough thread-jacking…..
you’re a peach anna.
but i hope you see why a man should approach sambhar with a healthy amount of respect. poseurs shall get burnt or have their throats ripped out.
any kannada peeps in the house will know we like our dose (yeah that’s right, we call it dose) with some serious alugade-iruli palya inside doused with any variety of extremely caara chutney, then served with even more chutney on the side. i prefer thenginkayi chutney (coconut)…but to each her/his own. mmmmm south indian goodness…
my ajji makes the best dose in the world, and any mutineer is welcome to sample.
don’t you think there should be a “throw down with bobby flay” involving dose making?? it would be so awesome.
vote for regime change!!
hey – did anyone else notice the mami has an apron with the indian flag on top. had they made vebb vear vun ov these, that’d have put paid to his election hopes.
FYI- Sriram is referring to a very tragic situation in the history of the mutiny, which took place during the last NYC meetup, in Central Park. Everyone was so kind; they offered to bring wayyy too much food, including chicken and other non-veg dishes. Anticipating this omnivorous picnic, before heading to the checkout line, I whimsically decided to try out the Indian food bar at Whole Foods Columbus Circle, which is where I had gone pre-meetup for fresh fruit, hummus and other provisions. I was ready to buy mass quantities of everything, but something wise within stopped me and told me to try before I buy in bulk. I chose a few curries, got some rice and drenched the whole mess in moru/raita, b/c I didn’t have high hopes for the curries or the rice. I LOVE thair/dahi. I can eat nearly inedible Indian food if there’s enough thair on it.
THERE WAS SUGAR IN THE THAIR.
I’m so glad I didn’t serve that mess to the rest of the mutineers that day. I took one for the team and ever since, people who witnessed that take-out travesty memorialize my pain by saying things like, “Allen taking Virginia? That’s as wrong as sugar in the thair.”
The best thing with Dosa is my mom’s thenga chamandi… and you thought I was Guju
Panjasara in the Thair – only Gujaratis do that.
I like Sambar, but not with dosa. It’s all about the fresh green coconut chutney y’all. Abhi, I will give your concoction a trial, but I’m not so keen on ketchup itself (Pace, Mrs. Kerry)—some tomatillo or mango salsa, however, might do nicely. . .
unknown #1: drumstick- muringaka. my favorite. you have to eat it like an artichoke leaf, i.e. pull it through your teeth.
Ah ha! The sabji made of sticks!
“Drinks indigenous to India”? What would those be? Arrack, Thumbs Up!, Limca, Fruitee?
I wonder if they had Jeera Pani. That would be awesome.
nd did the dosa induced courting of the macaca vote seem to reek of desperation to anyone else?
Maybe he was just hungry. Dosas are an excellent breakfast food.
As a second-order representative of the land of Mishti Dhoy, I gotta represent for the sugar in the yogurt.
It is very similar to how Salk discovered that fungus on an orange was actually a very good thing for humanity.
Very funny, Mr. Biologist. You almost got me for a second.:-)
Clearly spoken by a Gujju 😉
my appa used to put sacre (sugar) in his mosru (yogurt) when he was little– i don’t think that’s reserved for any one part of the subcontinent since we are super-kannada and appa grew up in ajhmer, rajasthan, and bombay.
i’m not saying i like it– but i do like sweeter mosru over sour mosru.
hey– when is the next SF Bay meet-up??
dude, sugar is TOTALLY a guju/bong thing. and i’m saying that as someone who puts five in my kappi.
Interesting…we are super kannada, and my dad grew up in ajmer as well…interesting…
Plenty many Punjus have their yogurt with sakkar or just plain white sugar :).
and then there is Shrikhand which is also sweetened yogurt.
Saheli, thanks for mentioning mishti-doi.
Actually, half Telugu on my Dad’s side (born in Andhra but spent alot of his childhood in Matunga). I just have a mighty sweety-tooth 😉
coconut chutney with dosa, sambar to soak your idli in. mmmm damn i’m getting hungry and craving saravana bhavan back in india…
Sarvana Bhavan and Kadambam (in Bangalore)…..Vaishnavi, i miss them too 🙂
Girlfriend, then you MUST try mishti dohi (sweet yogurt) from Calcutta. I was a believer when I visited Bengal. The best mishti dohi I had was in the Rajdhani train from Calcutta to Delhi…it was toooo good!
Does anyone like bread dipped in warm milk and then sprinkled in sugar? Yummy!
Let’s be a bit more clear here– I’m talking about sugar in RAITA, to go atop rice and savory curries. BLECH. I like sugary breakfasts and desserts. I love fruity yogurt for either occasion. I do NOT want sugar in my dinner.
ahh..i get it. I thought you were talking about suger in thiyr.
sugar in raita gets no love from me… my family always pours chili powder into everything, not sugar, so i expect my indian food to have that spicy bite to it, and sugar just messes all that up for me.
i prefer raita without sugar, when it accompanies other goodies. but there are times when i have boondi-raita or dahi-vada by itself for dinner and i enjoy a bit of saunth (a hot n’ sweet chutney with ginger) and green chillies. with any other form of raita (tomato-onion-cucumber, grated carrots, aloo and my favorite lauki/doodhi raita), sugar simply would ruin the flavor.
i recall tiffs between the tamil and kannadiga girls in my lab back home who would contest whether Tamil style or Udipi style sambhar is better. the latter has just a pinch of sugar/jaggery added and one senior guy from Gokarna told me that it apparently means to balance the “kara”.
ultimately its everyone’s personal taste and what we have grown up eating, so peace 🙂
They’ve opened up a Sarvana Bhavan in Edison, NJ – it was :: eh :: decent. Definitely not the best sambar I’ve had, and I’ve had a lot of sambar in my life.
And dahi with sugar is gross. I prefer my yogurt to taste salty or savory. The only sweet yogurt I’ve ever been able to get down is Yoplait Whips – the chocolate mousse flavor.
have you ever had the mallu dish of (rice, yogurt, smashed banana, & sugar)? they usually have it at weddings … kind of like a second course of rice (after you’ve had rice & curries) …
i don’t like it now … but i used to love it as a child …
hmm… i am not sure what this is … but i don’t think its khayam … or at least shouldn’t be … a chunk of khayam is put in sambar, but it will melt down to nothing once the sambar is done
man i’m drooling for a gunpowder dosa with sambar right now ….
ketchup & sour cream !!! eeek what will they do next … mayo & fries 😉
Oohhh gunpowder dosa? Elaborate please. 🙂
Rani – are you telegu/telugu? that’s my reference ot ‘gunpowder’. I didnt know there was a telegu version to the dosa. pls do elaborate.
hmmm.. since the sambhar thickens on those unknown exotic palate dancers .. i did some digging. (btw – i love old sambhar when it congeals and you can scoop it on toast).
this is unknown #3 a.k.a. black cardamom.
and this is unknown #2 a.k.a. the laurel leaf
or at least that’s what they look like to me.
Kadambam is anyday better that Sarvana Bhavan