How I found Love over a Plate of Dosa !

Our love for food is irreplaceable. The day you find someone you can share your favorite food with, is when your food has found you your soulmate.

Today, I’d like to tell you a story about how I found love over food. It is neither ordinary girl-meets-boy story nor a yet-another-quintessential-rom-com-flick. I was born in Ahmedabad, where food is considered more like a source of entertainment because there is nothing else to do! When I was too tiny, we moved to another city which was more of a cultural shock to my folks - Chennai, first impression was scary! I thought I was going to be all lonely and bored until the age of 6 when I met him.

At a crowded local hotel, there it was staring just right at me on a plate. It was Dosa. One morsel of it and I knew what love felt like - like a burst of flavours in my mouth and my emotions going haywire! It was literally love at first bite! Dosa was omnipresent and I could not ask for more. I became friends with Idli and Upma too because they were cute and soft. The Andhra meals made me feel like home. The rendezvous lasted for a decade and it was wonderful!

It is rightly said - God does not like happily ever after. We had to come back to Ahmedabad. I don't know what was I coming to. I was in for a shock. The dosa was not the same as I had been used to! I was devastated. I started hanging out at the bhaiyaji’s laari, gobbling up Dahi Puri and munching on Bhel to divert myself. Talk about cheap thrills. I could not come to accept Fafda and Jalebi. Khaman and Patra were just meh to me. I sought temporary solace in Khichdi and Rajma Chawal. It did give me comfort but nothing could not replace Dosa for me.

I had to then travel across the country for work and decided to find my Dosa this time. In the way, I came across a lot of dishes which were never known to me before. The simple Poha was fulfilling, the fiery Mirchi Vada and Kachoris I met in Jaipur did get me teary eyed but then came Jalebi to console me, the Dilliwale Chole Bhature even promised to stay with me forever! I got so confused between Biryani from Lucknow and Hyderabad as both started to claim it was original and ended up fighting each other while I watched that in the company of Shahi Tukda, Rasgulla was all flirtatious with his sugary talks, Appam and Stew were too mellow but made a good pair, Vadapav was the most boisterous of the lot. But by the end of the trip, I fell in love with all of them equally!

I realized, I love Dosa. But there are other dishes to love too! You can love each dish equally and learn to appreciate the food found in every city as it defines its own culture in a bite of their food. Dear Dosa, you have been with me enough, but its time for me to move on and love others too.

If somebody is ever to propose me, he just has to hold a plate of Dosa in his hand and go down on his one knee, asking me to join him to try all the cuisines in the world. Oh my god! How utterly romantic this is! I’d quickly grab his hand, catch any medium of transportation and not let the food in this world let itself wait any longer. Going world hopping, falling in love with every amazing dish that every place has to offer, with the man of my dreams, this is the best thing that could ever happen to me!