Above we have a delicious Thosai - a Southern Indian crepe made from rice and lentils. Thosai is pretty standard fair for Indian eateries in Malaysia, but it's quite hard to come by here. How lucky it is for me that a local Indian restaurant does such a brilliant version!
Chimes Indian Restaurant
170 Belmore Road
Balwyn, 3104
(03) 9857-5858
Chimes is my favourite Indian restaurant - we love their beef vindaloo, samosas, palak paneer (mmm... so green), and their naans - but my favourite dish there, without a doubt, is their thosai. The only difficult thing about thosai is that you have to eat it straight away. Order it takeaway and it will steam inside its plastic container, and become soggy before you get it home. Not good! Yes, it does require the effort of getting dressed and leaving the house (always a concern for me), but it's definitely worth it.
At Chimes, the hot and crispy thosai is filled with a mixture of potatoes and peas, much like what you'd find in a samosa.
Ravi, the friendly owner, serves his thosai with a coconut-based relish (at least I think it's coconut), and an incredible sambal sauce. The sauce is not sambal as I know it, but more like a spicy, soupy daal. It's full of yellow lentils and green leaves. I know it's supposed to be an accompaniment, but I love it so much I'd happily slurp it up by the bowlful.
3 comments
Hi Sarah,
ReplyDeleteIt's my first time here, and already like it! Oh that thosai look so mighty delicious! I love Indian food , especially the one from the south.
Chhers,
Elra
The thosai looks so good! And I love a good palak paneer. Or anything with paneer in it actually... :)
ReplyDeleteHi Sarah!
ReplyDeleteI'm about three years late in commenting on this post (I'm reading ur blog old posts to new) but u always seem interested in knowing more about what u eat.. That soupy lentil dal is 'sambar', it's a south Indian vegetable curry.. Not at all close to Asian sambal-which I loooove to bits btw :)
So nice to see the humble dosai (as known in India) be so cool in ur land coz back here it's thrifty grub n so fairly mundane (but we get super buzzed about eating Chinese n the like of course) :P
Reema