When mixed with various lentils and fermented, this produces a batter than can be fried to make dosa, or boiled to make idli.
Next door to Dosa'n'Chutny, at Saraswathy Bhavan, the idli is beautifully moist, and the rasam – a spicy tamarind soup – hot and delicious.
I missed the idli (another style of pancake) and the uppuma (spiced semolina porridge), available only on weekends.
Dosas and idli, traditional breakfast items in South India, are featured at both lunch and dinner.
The Chennai Corporation, the city's governing body, spends 1.86 rupees on each idli served in the canteen, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa said, according to The Hindu, and the state government supplies subsidized rice.
Each idli "incurs a loss of 86 paise," or nearly one rupee, she said.
Then vegetarian dosas and rice dishes and idli (dense but fluffy rice-and-spice cakes) at Swagath Gourmet.
At standing room-only joints, the local idli-dosa (steamed savory cakes and crisp crepes from rice batter), are served through the day.
I love the names so much, too: idli, puttu, varuval, idiappam… it's like a lullaby sung by Tinky Winky.
Breakfast was uttapam (rice and lentil flour pancakes), with tomato gravy, coconut chutney and idli podi, a nutty-tasting relish of ground lentils, spices and oil.
As is the case elsewhere in Malaysia, there's a sizeable Indian population in Penang and we feasted happily on sidewalks from morning to night on wonderful steaming idli, cashew rawa tosia, masala uthapam.
