A thin, crisp pancake of fermented rice and lentil batter, folded around spiced potato and served with sambar and coconut chutney.
What makes it masala dosa
Rice and urad dal batter, fermented overnight.
Spread thin on a very hot griddle and cooked on one side until crisp and golden.
A dry potato filling with mustard seed, turmeric, onion and curry leaves.
Sambar and coconut chutney alongside.
Where it comes from
Dosa itself is old: food historians trace it in Tamil country back well over a thousand years, and Karnataka has its own long claim. The potato filling can't be so old — potatoes reached India with the Portuguese — and the masala dosa is usually credited to cooks from Udupi in the twentieth century, though Mysore and Bengaluru restaurants tell their own stories.
Udupi restaurants spread it across India, and it's now eaten from Chennai to London, usually for breakfast or an evening tiffin.
How it varies
Mysore masala dosa
A red chutney of chilli and garlic spread inside before the potato goes in.
Rava dosa
Semolina and rice flour, poured thin without fermenting — lacy and brittle.
Neer dosa
From the Mangalore coast: an unfermented rice batter, soft and thin as cloth.