It is always interesting to compare foods that resemble each other in one aspect but are otherwise quite different from each other. Many of these food 'doppelgangers' have similar shapes but come from opposite parts of the world. Sometimes, a single country may boast multiple variations of the same dish. For instance, the famous moon-shaped festive sweet in India is known by many names: karanji in Maharashtra, nevri in Goa and Karnataka, somas in Tamil Nadu, garijalu in Telangana, pedakiya in Bihar, gujiya in Gujarat and so on. In the savoury category, think of how often we use the terms dumplings, momos, wantons, etc. interchangeably.
Recently, a Tweet by Madhura Rao (@madhurarrao) went viral because of a similar reason. Posting the picture of a plate of food, she asked, "Can you guess which part of India I'm currently in?" The plate contained four dishes: three dry items and a gravy of some kind. Take a look at the tweet below:
Comments soon started pouring in, with contradictory answers:
"That's Idiyappam or Noolputtu unless I'm wrong. A staple here in Kerala. But you could get these in places like Dilli haat too."
"The leaf envelope in Bengal would be Machher Paturi (fish baked in leaf) and in Maharashtra/Gujarat patrani machhi."
Turns out, she was in Mangalore! Rao added a comment to clarify each dish. She explained, "On the plate, you see muudo (rice cake steamed in screw pine leaves), shevai (rice noodles), chicken sukka (stir-fried chicken with lots of fresh coconut and spices), and coriander-based chicken curry. Hell of a welcome meal, this one."
The tweet has 223.1K views and 1,800 likes so far. Were you able to identify the dishes correctly? Let us know in the comments what was your guess.