Dubai: Food is usually served gently plated not hurled at you faster than you could scream "Dosa!"
One would expect such violent arrival of food to be greeted with horror, however, in this case it has become a viral food video. Step aside Salt Bae and his ilk, here is good ol' Muthu Anna, a street vendor from the heart of Bollywood, Mumbai city - creator of the Rajnikant-style dosa.
Dosas are crispy lentil-rice breakfast crepes from the south of India, made by spreading and cooking the batter on an iron griddle.
In the case of Anna, he spreads the rice batter on a hot iron griddle, sears it crispy on one side with butter, tosses in a filling of colourful vegetables and spices, rolls it, cuts it into four and tosses the savoury crepe onto a plate being held by the server, all at literally lightning speed.
And as with most things today, somebody took a video and today the street vendor from a quiet corner of India's commercial capital is famous.
With nearly 2 million views, the clip shared by Street Food Recipes on Facebook showcases Muthu Anna’s unique serving skills, inspired by the iconic South Indian movie star – Rajnikanth.
But then you ask, how does a crepe possibly be linked to an actor?
Well, Rajnikanth is known for his signature move of flipping and tossing objects at high speed in his movies and also revered as a superstar in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. All of which might have inspired Anna. But, one thing is for sure - people have showed the video a lot of love online.
Facebook user Alice Wanjiru commented: “This one looks yummy, I would love to try other people's food. "
Another user Arijit Das wrote: "I wonder at the level of his productivity per day. Hats off!”
Speaking of productivity, Anna has been making dosas for over 30 years. He explains in the video that he learnt the technique on the go.
Dosa or Dosai is a traditional South Indian breakfast dish, which is prepared using fermented rice and lentil batter. The rice and lentil are soaked in water for 5 to 6 hours and then ground separately, to a fine consistency. Then combined.
The batter is left to ferment overnight at room temperature (preferably 25 to 28C). When ready to cook, the batter is spread in a circular motion using a ladle, onto a hot iron tawa or griddle. Once the edges of the dosa starts to curl up from the griddle, it is flipped, rolled and served hot.
Every day, the seasoned street chef makes hundreds of dosas to serve his customers, which includes masala dosa, Mysore dosa and a contemporary addition – cheese dosa. A masala dosa consists of a mashed potato filling spread evenly, whereas Mysore dosa, named after the South Indian city in the state of Karnataka, is a soft dosa smeared with red garlic chutney on the inside; a hot version of the classic plain dosa. Cheese dosa is kind of self explanatory.
