"Do they eat dosa in Pakistan?"

Image from here.

"Do they eat dosa in Pakistan?" 

My first reaction to this question was no. My parents never made it at home (both my parents can cook). I never remember eating it during any of our childhood trips to Pakistan, in any city I ever visited. My mother was always crazy about eating barfi, chaat, dahi bhallay, and such snacks when we would visit Pakistan or even, when our father retired and we moved back to Pakistan in the late 1990s. 

"No, I don't ever remember eating dosa either when we visited Pakistan during our trips back home or since we set up house and, my family started living in Islamabad." 

"What? South Asia was one unit for thousands of years and this dish didn't make to present-day Pakistan?" 

I asked, but where does dosa originate from?

"I've read about it. It was invented in the temples in Udippi," explained my American friend who is married to a South Indian and has spent years in India. He has taught himself Southern Indian curries and is fond of desi food. As another friend from Nepal pointed out, "He is our ghar jamai friend."

Where is Udippi exactly? "It's in the south west." 

So, it's typically South Indian food, no? I stated. But South Asia is vast and has an incredible variety in cuisines. It's not necessary all dishes would travel across.  And, it's a sub-continent! It's huge. I tried to appear as logical as possible. 

Haresh of course had to barge into a calm conversation: those Pakistanis probably banned all vegetarian dishes. They wiped them from their memories in order to create a new Muslim country. 

I just gave him a dirty stare. I wanted to explain to him how my father always went on about vegetables and, gave us long lectures on how karelay or goonglay were kings of vegetables but there was no time for a personal diversion. 

My friends asked me, where did I first have dosa. I said it was definitely not in Pakistan. (I started to convince myself that dosa was not really known in Pakistan. After all, if I hadn't ever had it nor read about it, the dosa was not known.). My friend's wife started googling it and, said she found some restaurant in Pakistan serving it but Pakistani chefs were not adept at making it. Instead of going in this direction, the conversation tried to find reasons why the dosa did or did not exist in Pakistan. 

I launched into a long story about how the first time I had heard about dosa was from my friend from Dhaka who I met at university in London. She said, we should go eat dosa. I can't remember if we did. 

My friend said surely the dosa must have traveled up to western parts of India. 

I explained I had eaten dosa out of Pakistan and, never even heard of it before. I said I was pretty sure  it was not common in Punjab. I know our common friends from southern Punjab had only ever had it for the first time in Liberia (these friends are a married couple from Multan and Vihari and, the husband works for a Lebanese-owned business here in Monrovia). They would have told us stories of how dosa is a common snack. They often invite us to their home for lavish dinners cooked by the wife: mutton, chicken, lassi, kheer, biryani, pilao, aloo keema, chana batoora, parathay. No dosa. 

I kept racking my brain, trying to remember an article I might have read about dosas. (Is it dosas or dosay for plural?) My mind was trying to tell me that of course if folks enjoyed dosa in Pakistan, the only place it could be was Karachi. This is the most multi-cultural space in the country. Where so many people migrated to during the Partition. Food....food...what have I read about cuisine in Karachi recently? Oh yes, I read that Dawn article about how there were no more any Parsi restaurants in Karachi and, how families tried to keep favourite family recipes alive. But what else have I read? Oh yes, in my Facebook Newsfeed, I came across a CNN short video about how some Delhi food had survived in Karachi on Burns Road! 

But  my Karachi cousins have never taken me to eat dosa! Oh God, they took me to an upscale chai dhaba during my last visit. We kept squabbling over the best tea: thelay wali chai, this chai, that chai. God, why was my last visit obsessed with chai?? Then my cousins started squabbling over wholesome desi food at humble eateries compared to the more modren places. They started quarrelling about who has better taste in food. Oh God, I don't remember any one talking about dosa. 

All this time of course, Haresh, kept denigrating Pakistanis as meat eaters. 

I asked "Is dosa a main dish?" 

My friend said, "It's mainly a breakfast dish." 

Oh, I burst out and came up with a new theory on the spot. But of course, how can you expect a breakfast dish to travel and, change breakfast choices. I would say what's eaten for breakfast largely remains unchanged. People will not change breakfast! 

Somehow the conversation then veered to the British Raj and, it was said that during the Raj dishes must have made their way across. With the railroads and all, they built for us. 

My friend said, "Gandhi made it all the way to South Africa, didn't he? "

Needless to say, we kept going in circles. 

Did the dosa make its way to Karachi or not, I racked my brain. The answer has to be Karachi, the cosmopolitan, multi-cultural city of Pakistan. That's what I keep reading. But why haven't I ever had dosa there? 

I had bought a coffee table book from Saeed Book Bank last year which listed typical Pakistani dishes. I didn't remember anything about dosa but remember enjoying the bits about the history of pudding and chicken patties; how Anglo-India cuisine had influenced us; of course the Mughlai cuisine. I tried to remember whether any of my favourite programmes by chefs had mentioned the history and travel of dosa. Nothing came up.

Has Mughlai cuisine traveled down to Southern India, I asked, hoping it hadn't. 

"But of course!" My friends thundered! "There are so many popular kebab and biryani places in Udippi." 

Uff, why can't I logically come up with a theory? Which assumptions was I not interrogating? 

"Dosa is popular in Bangladesh," my friend's wife said. I said, yes of course. My good friend at university always went on about dosa, I dish I didn't even know about! 

"Dosa is so popular in Delhi. So, of course it must have traveled to Pakistan if it made it to Delhi. Come on, it's a thousand year old dish."

Is it really, I asked?

I kept thinking. Can I try to blame the evil British Empire somehow for not allowing the dosa to travel to Pakistan? Hmmm...British Raj. Were they responsible for this? What's the British connection to desi food? I know they make us think they taught us how to drink tea.

We tried to go back to tea. Where does tea come from? Another friend said China and, that it was traded and that's how it traveled. Hmmmm...so, is dosa a non-tradeable item and does that explain why it didn't reach Pakistan? 

Haresh had to jump in again and say they are meat eaters there. 

I decided to WhatsApp my Karachi cousins and a cousin in Lahore and a friend who comes from Lahore. 

My Karachi cousin said "Yup! My Phuppo often makes it." I wanted to murder her. Whaaaaat? I asked her but why the heck haven't you ever taken me?? She said she's always asked me but I didn't seem interested. Whaaaaaat? I looked up from my phone, wondering whether to admit defeat in my illogical thinking. I looked down. My cousin was recalling all the dosa places in Karachi; how they used to go eat dosa when they were kids; food trucks serving dosa; an Auntie who used to have a restaurant called Ponderosa; how the places in malls make crap dosa, etc. I was weak at my proverbial knees. Gosh, what a goof up. She kept typing and typing.

I just quietly mumbled, "Yes, they eat dosa in Karachi" and it's eaten there. I didn't mention her Phuppo making it all the time. I added, though, I myself have never seen one, even though I don't live in Karachi or Pakistan.

Fake Pakistani.

Haresh tried to gloat.

My Lahore cousin though saved me a little bit. Her WhatsApp message was: "What is a dosa? A bread?" I jumped at this and shared with my friends enthusiastically. It's not common in the Punjabi! Aha!

What's the moral of this story? Instead of trying to remember whether you know something or not about a place you don't even live in; instead of trying to reach for a fancy article you might have read; instead of trying to appear knowledgeable; just ask! Just ask the people who live there.

Next thing to read and obsess over: why is dosa only available in Karachi?