After, like, two months in the wilderness, working over my disappointment with Thiru, the over-rated Sri Lankan dosa guy, and some random place on Lexington Ave, I had a really lovely, really authentic dosa at the Something Something Dosa House on Newark Ave in Jersey City.
Actually, it wasn’t perfectly authentic… I decided to order a “Bangalore Masala Dosa”—an item I never once saw in Bangalore. This was a regular Masala Dosa the inside of which had been sprinkled all over with something like Bombay seasoning (an inoffensive yet inessential, mildly spicy, dry seasoning mixture).
The idlys where good. The coconut chutney was a bit blah. The jalebi was not-at-all fresh and kind of inedible. But the dosa itself—the dough and the potato curry filling—was perfect. Almost as good as Shanti Sagar (which, note, is a low bar to set in absolute terms).
Newark Ave! It’s only three blocks (or so) from the Journal Square PATH station. Unlike Curry Hill, it’s right in the middle of a place where actual Indians actually live (more of them there, I would guess, than anywhere else on the Eastern seaboard). And it’s only fifteen minutes from Manhattan.
Jersey City is suddenly seeming like a very reasonable place to buy a gigantic house and have babies.
Procrastiblog 