Paan Dosa: "Bizarre", "random", "stunt", "anything but food". These are some of the different emotions and comments coming from people who are watching the video of a man preparing what he calls a 'paan dosa', complete with dry fruits, cherries, candied fruits, figs, butter, and a paan syrup as the filling. While food experiments are nothing new, and we have seen everything from 'Maggi ice-cream' to 'chocolate golgappa' to 'momo chai', the newest addition to India's bizarre food list is this 'paan dosa' that has the Internet demanding "punishment" for the creator of the dish. 


The post from Raipur shared by food blogger Sukrit jain (@thegreatindianfoodie) on Instagram, in which the vendor can be seen spreading a green batter on a hot dosa griddle and then adding the other ingredients one by one, has created quite a buzz online. And the Raipur food joint's audacious take on the quintessential South Indian dish has been called out as an "atyachar (torture)", with netizens demanding "justice for dosa".  


How Is Paan Dosa Made?


The Instagram reel begins with the vendor spreading the green batter on the tawa. The batter is apparently made with paan. After it cooks a little, the cook adds ingredients typically required to make a sweet paan — tutti-frutti, cherries, dates, figs, and gulkand, topped with a dash of a paan syrup. All the ingredients are then blended into a thick paste. 


Then comes the special component without which any food experiment, especially those made on the street ostensibly for food vloggers, appears to be incomplete these days — cheese. This Raipur vendor also uses a generous amount of grated cheese on the "dosa", before he divides it into four equal parts, each folded into the typical shape in which a paan is served. 


Each dosa is served with some more grated cheese along with more paan syrup.






'Special Punishment In Garuda Puran'


None of the Instagrammers who watched the reel seemed to be willing to try out the dish being served in Raipur in the name of food experiment. The concept has clearly not gone down well with them.


“Paan chhurwane ki Ninja Technique,” commented a user. 


"Justice for dosa," posted multiple users.


"Garud puran me iske liye alag se saja likhi hai," wrote an Instagrammer, referring to the ancient Hindu text that talks about what happens to a human being after death, and also mentions certain punishments that await people in afterlife depending on their deeds on Earth.


One person wrote: "Disaster. Stop making such things", while another posted: "Ye atyachar kab tak hoga Dosa pe??? (for how long dosa will bear this torture???"


"As a South Indian I’m trying to find a corner to cry at. Please stop! At this rate Butter Chicken icecream isn’t far away," summed up yet another Instragrammer.


What Was The Thought Behind Paan Dosa Idea? 


Netizens are are evidently not impressed, but Raipur seems to have approved the experiment. 


While the reel mentioned above was posted recently, YouTube has a video from two years ago about the same shop selling the same dish. 



Explaining the dish, owner Vishal Bagwani said in the video: "I was eating a paan one day when I thought why is it that paan is always had cold...and never with cheese."


He said he wanted to try something new, and the idea of 'paan dosa' came to his mind.


The vendor making the dosa in the December 2021 video claimed there was "demand" for it. The dish cost Rs 110 apiece at the time.


Let us know if you would like to taste a 'paan dosa'!