Dosa is an unforgiving dish. Get the batter proportions wrong or the griddle too hot, you will be left with an unpalatable gloop that cannot be salvaged. Unfortunately, being born into a south Indian household doesn’t give you immunity from dosa disasters. If you also belong to this league of dismal dosa makers, you should ideally squeal in excitement at the thought of a Dosa Printer. However, if you are a person of culture, the thought should appal you.
A dosa printer of all things
Indian Twitter was abuzz today when a promotional video for the dosa-making gadget went viral. Sold by a brand called Evochef, the dosa maker is a compact machine that promises perfectly-made crispy dosas everytime.
Dosa printer ЁЯШ│ pic.twitter.com/UYKRiYj7RK
тАФ Samantha /роЪроороирпНродро╛ (@NaanSamantha) August 23, 2022
The Dosa Printer looks like a slightly larger pop-up toaster and, as the name suggests, “prints” out a dosa. There is a compartment or a “detachable batter tank” where the batter is poured. The finished product comes out of the other end in neat, crispy sheets.
If you are pedantic about dosa shapes, the machine may disappoint you. It can only “print” out dosas in sheets.
Dosa is traditionally prepared by soaking rice and urad (black lentils) overnight, griding them together into a smooth batter and fermenting it. The batter is then scooped out and poured onto a hot griddle and spread using circular motions.
In many Indian kitchens hitherto untainted by technology, dosa batter is still prepared on the grinding stone. Imagine all the indignation from south Indian pattis if the Dosa Printer trend catches on.
The comments section is flooded with people expressing their disdain for the deplorable invention that no one asked for.
Others were quick to point out that preparing the batter is the most difficult part of the dosa-making process. A machine to simply cook the dosa makes no sense, considering its going to take up space in compact urban kitchens.
Why would any sensible household make a cumbersome purchase of Rs 16,000?
With that being said, let’s not forget that there have been other ridiculous kitchen gadets. These clumsy inventions are products of poor market research and some serious lack of creativity.
Rotimatic
Called the world’s first and fully automatic roti maker, the Rotimatic mixed, kneaded, flattened and cooked rotis. That’s right ! All this for a low low price of Rs 3,00,000.
Bacon Master
Other ridiculous gadgets include Bacon Master, a toaster made specially for bacon. Seriously, how hard is it to fry bacon on a regular girdle?
Butter Dispenser
There’s nothing more unpleasant than spreading cold butter on a slice of bread. However, the solution isn’t a clunky, clumsy butter mill. Try keeping the butter out till it thaws or simply grate it.
Salad Scissors
This dumb invention doesn’t serve any purpose apart from take up more place in your kitchen cabinet. A regular scissor or a knife can do what it can and occupy much less space.
Egg Yolk Separator
This device helps you suck out the yolks out of the eggs, a feat you can perform by simply passing the yolk between both the shells till it separates from the whites.