I’m on a mission from Shiva

Today I tried something new. I set off after breakfast with a mission: find the best Mysore Masala Dosa in Mysore. Well, that and a sherwani – a ¾ length kind of man dress made of silk that is worn at weddings – but more on that later. Or not. My old routine for heading into city centers after arriving at my hotel on a bike was to use taxis or autorickshaws. The primary reason is that getting lost in an Indian city on a big, heavy motorcycle when it’s oppressively hot and your depressingly tired really, really sucks. Today I cheated a bit and set off on the bike with a little Indian lady in my Bluetooth headset chanting step-by-step directions from Google maps. Yes, she did send me in circles several times but when I consider that first time I came to India – 25 years ago – not only was there no GPS but there were no road signs either, I accepted her artificially intelligent instructions without hesitation. With the sound of Indira Google in my ear as a safety net, I decided to wander aimlessly on the bike for a few hours as you might when ambling through the narrow lanes of an old European town. I spent hours getting deeper and deeper into the city, dosa by dosa, through residential neighborhoods, through inner-city dairy farms, through electrics town, transmission town and wrought-iron fence town. (most commercial districts focus on one commodity so you could have a whole block of guys selling screws or women’s undies or whatever). For showing me a new way explore the densest corners of India, I thank you, Indira Google.

Back to the dosas.

Dosa is a simple food served for breakfast or lunch. Try ordering one for dinner in India and you will be laughed at. To find the one most adored by Mysorians, I asked the barber who had just pruned my scalp and straight-razored my face for $2. He took me to the door of his stall-like shop and recited a stream of directions. I managed to retain the first 2 or 3 steps. But I did recall the name – Hotel Vinayaka Mylari. I wasn’t really hungry – I had eaten 4 already – but I was on mission from Shiva so pulled out my phone, Googled the restaurant, mapped the route and hit ‘start’ to have Indira calmly guide me there through the mid-morning traffic crush. The Hotel – really a hole in the wall restaurant with 5 tables – employs the standard approach of seating you at any table where there is a spot. I was tripled up with two young dudes on a day trip from Bangalore out to find – you guessed it – the best Mysore Masala Dosa in Mysore. We talked about typical guy stuff – work, motorbikes, girls – and food. Unlike the traditional variety with a thin, crispy shell, the Mysore version is more like a crepe and is smeared on the inside with chili paste before plopping in a hefty load of potato cooked with masala spices. The flopped over pancake then receives a spoonful of soft butter and is served with some coconut chutney that was so delish I could have eaten it all by itself.

Was it the world’s best Mysore Masala Dosa? How the fuck should I know. I’m not a dosa expert. But I can unequivocally declare that it was the most fun I’ll ever have trying to find the world’s best Mysore Masala Dosa and I guess that was the mission Shiva had for me all along.

Robb La Velle

Roro La Velle is the founder and Maharaja of Client Experience with Two Wheeled Expeditions. He has ridden around the world twice and laid tracks through over 40 countries on 4 continents. He is also the author of ‘The Places In Between‘, an account of a husband & wife team circumnavigating the world on two wheels