15 Sep 08: Scrambled eggs or Dosa?

Breakfast is arguably the most important meal in Mysore.  Since we sleep so early, dinner is usually fruit or something very light.  Moreover, what you eat the night before dictates whether you float through your practice like a butterfly … or thump along like an elephant.

Most people eat out because of the social element.  Practicing at different times means that breakfast is a good time to meet up with people.

The 2 main types of breakfast are Indian or Western.  In addition to preference, cost is also an influencing factor.

Indian breakfast is cheap.  You can get a dosa for 15-20 rupees (S$0.50 to 0.70).  A dosa is a pancake made from ground rice & lentils, served with chutney and/or sambar (spicy vegetable curry).  If you’re more health conscious, you’d go for idly (same mixture but steamed versus fried).  Other breakfast options include vada (deep-fried doughnut), rice bath (spicy rice.  ‘bath’ pronounced ‘baht’) and kesari bath (sweet semolina dessert).  A chai will set you back 8 - 20 rupees, depending on the size.  And, just to remind you again … a toilet roll costs about 35 rupees.

The Western option would be eggs (omelette or scrambled), toast (sometimes home-made), fresh juices, oat porridge, fruit salad, pancakes, filtered coffee etc.  You’d be spending at least double that of an Indian breakfast because an omelette costs at least 30 rupees, toast is 20 rupees and filtered coffee about 25 rupees.

In recent years, more and more western eateries have opened up, usually by yoga students who decide to move to Mysore and want a source of income to pay for their yoga.  Most people last only a couple of years although each time one place closes down or changes hands, another one opens up.

There are a few places which also have the fusion menu.  You can get your scrambled eggs with rotis instead of toast.  You can get a sweet coconut dosa or an egg chapati roll.  These establishments are either run by locals or foreigners who employ local chefs.

The local eateries are actually called ‘Hotels’ instead of restaurants.

NB. These ‘Hotels’ do NOT have rooms to rent.  Was confusing at first.

I enjoy eating there because I love Indian food.  It’s also nice to be amidst the local community and eat with your hands.  Each place has a different atmosphere and there are subtle differences to the food, even though they all serve mostly the same thing. 

Most of the time you’re the only foreigner so you will get stared at a bit.  The staff are friendly although I have seen them giving us curious or maybe the ‘Oh no, it’s them again’ looks.  We tend to order non-standard things eg ‘chai sugar separate’, dosa with no chilli, or sambar instead of chutney with our dosas.  The kitchen often gets things wrong but I guess you can’t blame them since we make their lives more complicated.  Chai without sugar means they have to boil up a whole new pot.  Once I was charged more!  Ironic how you have to pay more for less.

Indians don’t dilly-dally when eating.  They are single-minded, eat fast and don’t chat.  A popular hotel on the high street is literally a ‘stand-up’ place.  Only bar tables, no chairs.  You buy coupons at the cashier, hand them in at the kitchen counter and wait at the table for your food which is delivered almost instantaneously.  People are in and out of there in minutes.

Funny how I don’t eat breakfast at home but it’s my favourite meal in Mysore.