House of Pancakes

Lately, I have been obsessed with a dish called pessret , served at Madhu’s Dasaprakash, which is a thoroughly discovered South Indian vegetarian restaurant on the perimeter of the mega Los Cerritos Mall, not far from the new Cerritos Performing Arts Center and a short idli toss to the west from Artesia’s Little India strip.

Pessret, which at first glance may look more like a working maquette for an Eero Saarinen structure than anything you’d possibly eat, is a beige lentil-flour pancake with the dull, smooth sheen of a freshly pressed pair of gabardine slacks, as big around as a phonograph record bent into a ‘50s-curvilinear shape. Thin crisp edges work to a slight, sour chewiness at the center. The pancake encloses a mixture of green chile and minced onion--a sort of elegant counterpoint of slight bitternesses--and the package is as spicy-hot as an East L.A. taco.

In certain circles, Indian food is considered something too complicated for the Western palate to comprehend, as if a stew containing 37 spices were not superior, exactly, but more profound than say, an Italian stew containing seven; as if lentil flour were imbued with cultural resonances not to be found in lowly ground wheat. And though a lot of Indian vegetarian food, at least the vulgarized Bengali kind found in most local Indian restaurants, seems like a tincture of turmeric and grease, the pessret at Dasaprakash is the sort of dish that makes you think that those people may be right.

Pessret , of course, is not the only decent thing at Madhu’s Dasaprakash, nor is it even considered a house specialty. The waiter, in fact, may insist that you try the restaurant’s famous version of masala dosai , a rice-lentil pancake wrapped around a mound of spicy onion-potato glop, before he will let you order the pessret at all. Go ahead; try them both. Dasaprakash is truly an international house of pancakes. Rava dosai are crisp, lacy pancakes made from the South Indian equivalent of Cream of Wheat; oothapam are lentil pancakes with tomatoes or onions. At the end of your pancake feast, the table will be littered with little steel bowls of sambhar , the thin, lightly curried lentil broth that is to South Indian pancakes what maple syrup is to American ones.

Dasaprakash may be strictly vegetarian, but you can eat there a dozen times without seeing an actual vegetable. Cashew pakodas are quail-egg-size lentil-flour fritters, studded with nuts, as brittle as sponge candy and quite spicy. Masala vadai are chewy, falafel-like fried bean patties, onion-y, studded with whole legumes and bits of chopped chiles, terrific with a bit of tart tamarind chutney; idli are the usual steamed, madeleine-size rice-flour cakes; bondas are sort of fried, blandish Ping-Pong balls of lentils or mashed potatoes that benefit from a dab or two of the spicy mint-laced chutney. Samosas , Indian turnovers filled with yet another spiced mashed-potato mixture, are uncharacteristically airy and crisp. A thali plate, more or less an Indian TV dinner, includes the crisp puff called puri and a trayful of sambals and sauces in which to dip it.

After the fritters and pancakes comes the uppuma , dramatically unmolded at table, a fantastic mound of semolina that is flavored with sweet onions but tastes mostly like butter, an inordinate amount of which soaks the dish. (Suggested serving: about a tablespoonful.) Bisi bele huli anna sounds like an old Hawaiian ukulele number but is actually a popular dish of rice and lentils, drowning in ghee and sweetly spiced. Pullyodarai is an unusually tart sort of rice pilaf flavored with tamarind and spiked with crunchy beans.

Indian vegetarian food can be delicious, but it is rarely light. It may be a good thing that Dasaprakash’s desserts--carrot halvah and such--are rarely as delicious as the pancakes. Finish with a cup of spiced South Indian coffee or masala tea instead.

Madhu’s Dasaprakash

11321 E. 183rd St., Cerritos, (310) 924-0879. Open Tuesday-Sunday 11:30 a.m to 2:30 p.m. and 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. Beer and wine. Lot parking. MasterCard and Visa accepted. Dinner for two, food only, $18-$30.