The pleasant commercial centre along Kolkata's Eastern Metropolitan Bypass has a wide pavement in front where various snack shops have put out chairs. In good weather, as it is between rains, you can nicely relax for a little while and nibble. And so we did.
Our target was an idli-dosa shop that had been recommended. In due course the dosa came, and it was as good as its reputation had promised. What was more, the coconut chutney and sambhar, difficult to get right, were also absolutely up to the mark. We burped happily and asked for the bill, which ended all the good feeling: Rs 50 for a plain dosa at what is no more than a glorified roadside dhaba!
Maybe it was the commercial centre, and the upmarket apartment blocks that flanked it. You charge what you think the clientele will bear. Intrigued and perturbed, I decided to check out the more well-known South Indian eateries in south Kolkata.
The famed Ramkrishna Lunch Home on Lake Road, as authentic as you can get, overflows with courtesy and good nature. I ordered a plain dosa and a coffee and was hit by a bill for Rs 42 for dosa and, absolutely unbelievably, Rs 30 for South Indian filter coffee. The gentleman at the counter solicitously asked how the coffee was. His manner said he knew it was super. It wasn't, despite the outrageous price.
Thoroughly upset, I went and tried out the most famous South India address in town, Komala Vilas opposite Lake Market, around which the city's South Indian community has gathered for decades. Its Banana Leaf restaurant was nicely done up and displayed a commendation form from one of the city newspapers. It was early in the morning and they were serving a "mini tiffin" - one each of idli, vada, dosa, a small helping of upma and, my great favourite, kesari bath. The food was super and the coffee was not fantastic but passable. Then I asked for the menu to check the a la carte prices - and the old story was repeated: dosa Rs 50, coffee Rs 26 plus around 14 per cent taxes.
Thoroughly disorientated, I decided to withhold judgement till I found out more. Maybe the recent inflationary whack had affected all cities. So I was on the phone to Bangalore and asking my old colleagues what prices were like at our favourite, Adiga, in its airconditioned sitting-down part. Dosa Rs 40, it turned out, and coffee Rs 17-20, depending on which part of the city the branch is in - and, here lies the rub, inclusive of taxes.
Are you sure, I asked, and added, when did you go last? A bit exasperated, he replied, we go there almost every day. Then I could do no better than unburden my tale of woe on how outrageous prices were in Kolkata. We agreed that the country was going downhill, with Kolkata and Chennai - yes, yesterday's affordable metropolis - leading the way. Then, with utmost cynicism and a heavy heart, we asked each other rhetorically, how long do you think Bangalore can hold out?
Adiga has several things going. Its coffee is so good, streets ahead of whatever I have tasted in Kolkata. And if you are at their Indiranagar branch and are lucky to get a first-floor table facing the park across the road, then the green beyond the glass more than makes your day.
My colleague tried to rationalise by suggesting that South Indian dishes were not the staple in Kolkata, and so lack of volume had something to do with prices. But I am not so sure. Dosa, if not filter coffee, is now a national dish with a large following, available everywhere. In Bangalore the middle class still demands and gets affordable prices. In Kolkata it is street food, which is very affordable. But as soon as you get within the walls and there is an AC working, then you are sunk.
It is immaterial whether I finally go to heaven or hell. What is important is I should make the first leg of the journey down Mysore Road from Bangalore early in the morning and have breakfast at Kamat. The wife and I like to share a huge paper dosa. The grand illusion of its size hides the lightness of its substance. After that you taste idli and vada - one piece each, considering your age - and end with the grand kesari bath. (In the south, of course, the sweet dish is taken first.) The aroma of ghee and the pineapple and nuts within make it a dish fit for kings. And, of course, the coffee. After a breakfast like that, it does not really matter what life holds for you.
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