Himalaya

Breakfast McDosa?

by Jeffrey Gantz

ON THE CHEAP

If you've got the breakfast blahs, how about breakfast in Bengal? Or Benares? Or Bombay? The Himalaya Restaurant, in Boston, has now joined Café of India, in Harvard Square, in offering Indian breakfasts. Himalaya has the more extensive menu: chana poori and chana bhatura (curried chickpeas with bread and yogurt or raita; each $5.25); aloo paratha and gobhi paratha (whole-wheat bread stuffed with potatoes or cauliflower; each $3.95); masala dosa (a crêpe stuffed with potatoes and onions and served with lentil soup and coconut chutney; $5.95); chicken dosa ($6.95); and vegetable uttapam (a pancake with rice and lentils and vegetables, served with lentil soup and coconut chutney; $5.95). Café of India offers chana poori plus a paneer-basil-tomato omelet and a curried omelet ($5.95 each); on weekends, dosa and uttapam dishes ($6.95 to $7.95) appear. (Himalaya and Café of India also offer standard American egg breakfasts for the terminally Indophobic.) My favorite item is the chana poori: hot chickpeas, cool yogurt, puffy bread. Wash it down with a cup of masala tea and you can forget about lunch.

Himalaya is located at 95 Mass Ave, in Boston; call (617) 267-6644. Café of India is located at 52A Brattle Street, in Cambridge; call (617) 661-0683. Both open for breakfast at 7 a.m.

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