Indian Patents the Burrito

Not really, but it's almost true. The always interesting Sepia Mutiny describes Dosa Plaza and their 104 dosai including the patented Mexican Dosa. A dosa is very similar to a tortilla except the dosa uses rice flour instead of wheat flour. Actually, a chapatti is a tortilla, so maybe an Indian really will patent the burrito. Here is Sepia Mutiny’s take on the Mexican Dosa:

This far-out concept of wrapping a round piece of flattened bread around Mexican ingredients is going to be big. Picture, if you will, a whole chain of hacienda-like eateries with...bells...selling this truly groundbreaking product to all of India’s mostly non-obese citizens. So big, that it should spark unbridled franchising around the world, catering to those starved for affordable Mexican food prepared quickly. Billions upon billions of dollars will be generated. Luckily, Khorwal [owner] has patented this ingenious design, so he won’t have worry about unscrupulous businessmen stealing his idea.

Rahul Bhatia who writes the interesting blog Greenchannel actually visited Dosa Plaza and spoke with the man behind the counter – and decided not to eat their food. Here is his take on Dosa Plaza:

I asked him what the Mexican dosa contains. He said there were mixed vegetables inside the dosa, and cheese was sprinkled on top. Upon further questioning, he said - not sheepishly, mind you - that it was labeled 'Mexican' because of the sprinkled cheese. The Manchurian idli, said the server, was a diced idli dipped in Manchurian gravy. And the Mexican baked dosa was not baked, but fried.

For a country largely paranoid about a foreign hand perverting our culture and all that, we sure do some strange things to ourselves.

My take on Dosa Plaza is simple: they’re idiots. McDonald’s started their restaurant with only 8 items on their menu. Their philosophy: do a few things extremely well, with consistent quality, and keep it simple. That philosophy should be the philosophy of any fast-food start-up. Once you get your core items down you can expand later. But if they have 104 items now - before thousands of people have tried them - many of them must be just awful. The concept of doing careful market testing before launching your product just hasn't gotten to India yet.