Chaula's

It’s a beautiful day. Sitting on some steps in the sunshine, I’ve got food from Chaula’s, a bottle of French cider, and my lunch companion has been detained. What’s a hungry woman to do? Crack open the bottle, obviously, and start nibbling the food. I munch on a couple of handfuls of black-pepper encrusted kaju (cashews) and a lamb samosa. I have been to Chaula’s on Station Street to fetch masala dhosas. Dhosas are light, lacy pancakes, often a breakfast dish in South India. Chaula’s make rice flour ones filled with potato and onions, served with spicy vegetable and lentil sambar (the consistency of thick soup) and coconut chutney. Chaula’s have eat-in tables, but Viva needs a photograph of the food before it can be eaten. Waiting for the dhosas to be cooked, I’m told they’re best eaten straight away, because they lose crispness quickly. I explain about the photograph, so they arrange a dhosa on a plate, which results in me walking along Lewes High Street holding a stainless-steel platter aloft. Miraculously, I don’t drop it. My companion arrives. We take the food into the pretty courtyard garden behind the Viva offices and lay the dhosas on a table. The photograph taken, we dig in. My companion uses the sambar as a dip, I tip it over the pancake and slather on chutney, the colour of pistachios. The sambar is strongly spiced, in a good way, especially with the cool chutney. I unpack some deliciously sweet pistachio burfi. The sun is blissful. Chai and a hammock would be perfect. EC