The story behind the dosa: Venu Jarugula's perfect pancake for his father
Monday, 20 January 2020
In a village in southern India, an impoverished rice and cotton grower eagerly awaits an online video call from his only child in faraway Christchurch. When the daily call comes, the almost-blind farmer can just make out the shape of his son's face, thanks to eye surgery funded by a Canterbury food stall.
The son is Venu Jarugula, a mechanical engineer turned cook who works 15 hours a day, seven days a week, on his tiny, flourishing Dosa Kitchen business inside the Riverside Market culinary hub that opened recently in central Christchurch.
Every dosa – a version of the crisp, oversized, savoury pancake his mother regularly makes back home – is created with exquisite care and the knowledge that business success for him may deliver better sight for his father.
'If there is a chance, I would like to replace his eyes, that's my dream,' Jarugula says.
**READ MORE:
* Eight of the last off-the-beaten-track places
* Riverside Market may be the spark Christchurch needs**
So the 28-year-old immigrant begins each day soaking then grinding rice and lentils that are left to naturally ferment for up to 10 hours. This mix forms the basis of a batter that must be exactly the right consistency to swirl onto the hotplate.
'I have to concentrate, to get the right heat, to only go one way to spread the batter, check the air bubbles. I want each and every dosa to be done right. It must be thin and crisp, nice and golden brown colour, with that tang.'
If you're seeking a symbol of reinvention, excitement and hope in this rejuvenating city, Jarugula is as good as any. Having arrived in Christchurch in 2015 with his non-transferable engineering degree, he had no friends and no contacts beyond the name of the business school where he had enrolled, not even basic spoken English. But he'd heard rebuild jobs were plentiful and was determined to repay his student loan and create prosperity for himself and his parents.
Dosa, he decided, was the key. After months of experimentation and online research, having quizzed his mother and restaurateurs in India, he developed a recipe of his own and started selling at markets around the area. Fans returned every week and he continued to fall for his adopted city.
'I can't leave Christchurch, even to go to another place in New Zealand. I find it beautiful, a really peaceful place. The botanic gardens, you can see the mountains from the city, it's just really cool.'
When Riverside Market developers approached him, he leaped at the idea of joining about 70 independent makers and bakers, brewers, growers and other food vendors inside the purpose-built Oxford Tce premises. Within weeks of its October 5 opening date, hopeful projections of 10,000 visitors a day were obliterated by head counts of up to 25,000 on busy weekend days.
'We are much more busy than we thought, it's crazy. We always sold out.'
Someday, he may open a larger restaurant to provide employment for other immigrants like himself and Sri Lankan-born wife Thili, who is a recently graduated accountant.
For now, he is content to stay put.
'This is one of the best decisions I ever took in my life, to be at this market. There is really good support, it's really friendly people, it's a wonderful community. And we need this kind of place in Christchurch.'
The dosa-maker is right. The Oxford St market is the latest in a rapidly evolving clutch of dining and shopping precincts that are collectively bringing crowds back to a central city previously gutted by earthquakes and tragedy, demolition and a lengthy construction period. Food vendors like Jarugula not only motivate locals to venture back downtown, they're also providing visitors with tasty reasons to venture into the city.
This year, tourism income surpassed pre-quake levels for the first time; domestic and international visitors spent $2.5 billion in Christchurch in the year ending September 2019.
'There's no doubt tourism is a rockstar contributor to the local economy, that it's essential to sustain the city's ongoing recovery,' ChristchurchNZ destination development manager Anton Wilkes says. 'Last summer, people started returning downtown in decent numbers. Now, it's next level.'
Restaurateur Lisa Levy agrees the downtown area is far more vibrant and less fragmented than when she and husband Simon established their respected eatery Inati in 2017.
Levy, who heads the region's restaurant association, says more tourists are staying in Christchurch longer because there is more for them to do.
'It's good for all our businesses, to see the city come alive again. I love being a part of it. What modern day city gets a chance to reinvent itself?'
Perception is still a problem though. According to Wilkes, plenty of potential tourists continue to picture rubble rather than reality.
'Local people understand we have a new city, with new spaces and new energy,' he says. 'But people from outside Canterbury often don't understand how far we've come, that there's a real sense of excitement here.'
It is certainly fascinating to roam freshly paved streets that are wide and flat and friendly to both pedestrians and cyclists, to discover what's developing in and around the gleaming glass or repurposed brick and timber buildings.
On the top floor of the public library, which opened in October 2018, a French tourist sits at a bank of sewing machines, making a cover for the mattress she and her boyfriend will stow in the van they are kitting out for travel. The couple wound up in Christchurch by default – flights from Asia were cheap – but she likes it far more than she expected.
Art is everywhere; murals on roller doors down back alleys, poetry painted on fence posts, sculpture to clamber over. The buskers are back, too, offering entertainment and an informal barometer suggesting crowds have now reached critical mass. Some clever planners have thought to scatter public drinking fountains in useful places while the children of Christchurch designed the nation's biggest and arguably best playground alongside the Avon River.
Then there is the food. Sometimes it seems the city might be drawing its strength from baked goods, given the profusion of earthy sourdough loaves, buttery (or vegan) pastries, and the rows of glossy French tarts in cinnamon-scented premises. And they all opened their doors less than four months ago or only six weeks ago or just a fortnight earlier.
On the other hand, perhaps it is coffee fuelling the growth; roastery after roastery makes extravagant promises about beans that are raw and natural, air roasted or single origin. One café offers a caffeine hit, with a thriving vegetable garden out front and toilets hidden behind a secret door; just walk towards the bookcase and it automatically slides sideways to reveal essential customer amenities.
Across the road, diners can perch in communal dining spaces and select dishes from eight diverse owner-operated eateries under one roof. Or head next door to a shuffle board and fondue set time warp where the restaurateur greets his guests with 'welcome back to the 1970s'.
It isn't only the culinary scene that is blossoming downtown, either.
Inside The Welder health and wellness complex, 23-year-old Rosa Flanagan is running a plant-based cook school and catering business with younger sister Margo. Rosa has a human nutrition degree and Margo does the marketing but, two weeks after moving into their own premises, both young entrepreneurs are preparing oversized platters of salad for a birthday party. Their workshops are booked weeks in advance and they are waiting on second and third print runs of their Two Raw Sisters cookbook which recently sold out – 5000 copies – in a month. The sisters are enthusiastic about the urban neighbourhood their business inhabits, too, with its new restaurants and bars, the yoga studio upstairs and dance studio nearby. AirBnB tourists are starting to wander in from the apartment complex down the street.
'Christchurch has this golden opportunity to start up new things that have never been done before,' the older Flanagan says. 'We've got space to create things, this health and wellbeing centre has never been done in New Zealand. Here we have a cool hangout place, cool restaurants, cool people and it's such a tight-knit community.'
Fellow tenant Elsie McCulloch is part of this community. She and her mother Rhiannon, both trained pastry chefs, are the creative forces behind The Great Pastry Shop. Their small kiosk – designed by McCulloch's mum, wired by her electrician brother, staffed part-time by her schoolgirl sister – specialises in luscious European pastries.
The baker says she and her business neighbours are collectively determined to succeed.
'I feel like you can feel the passion behind everyone, we're so committed. Everything is kind of popping up and the central city's coming back to life. Now, suddenly it's happening.'
Dosa maker Venu Jarugula, meanwhile, continues to fall for the garden city that has got its groove back.
'I can't leave Christchurch, even to go to another place in New Zealand,' he says.
'I find it beautiful, a really peaceful place. The botanic gardens, you can see the mountains from the city, it's just really cool.'
* Sue Hoffart is a freelance journalist. She writes for Tourism Industry Aotearoa, telling the untold stories behind New Zealand's best ventures.
STAY
Aside from its five-star service and foodie credentials, guests can feel good about staying at the recently-opened Sudima Christchurch City thanks to its behind-the-scenes environmental and social initiatives. And there is no charge for all the extras; the a la carte breakfast, yoga classes, use of bicycles (park the car and leave it there) and treats like locally-made She chocolate. Little wonder the hotel group picked up New Zealand's top tourism award in November. It is also easy to see why locals are utilising the adjacent Moss Spa and dining the Vices & Virtues restaurant.
TRY
Put yourself in the hands of the professionals and take a kai safari tour with Amiki Tours. Cate and Riwai Grace have done their homework in terms of both food and local history - they are great storytellers who know where to find the city's culinary gems.
Sign up for a cooking class with Two Raw Sisters.
Or Riverside Kitchen in Riverside Market that also offers market and other food tours, demonstrations and guest chefs from Indonesia, Italy and India amongst others. There is a dining space for private functions, as well as lessons for younger children and teenagers preparing to leave home.
TASTE
Plan to visit and revisit Riverside Market over several mealtimes to properly celebrate Canterbury food and the city's ethnic diversity courtesy. Aside from dosa, find authentic Indonesian tempeh and meat barbecued Argentinian-style. Prepare to queue for popular Greek souvlaki. Buy Turkish delight from its Turkish maker. Roam the stands at Riverside Collective, a gathering of boutique producers making everything from layered cakes and vegan cheese to cashew brittle, edible petals, hemp hearts and curry paste.
Buy fresh coconuts, watercress and quail eggs. Tuck into a sandwich shaped like a whale. Visit the fishmonger for smoked salmon sausages and fresh banana prawns. Take home pasta and olives. Look up and ogle the reclaimed bricks, a ceiling made from rimu floorboards, timber piles from Lyttelton's wharf and the clock rescued from the old Moorhouse Ave train station.
Find gourmet teas, wholefoods, organic juices, a wine bar, New Zealand crafts and plenty more at The Welder. Also home to The Great Pastry Shop for classic Paris Brest pastries and a deliciously reinvented pastie made with mature cheddar, leek, onion, rosemary, potato and smoked garlic.
Tucked into an alleyway, Bohemian Bakery Café does beautiful bread, vegan pain au chocolate and properly buttery pastries.
High Street was edgy and appealing pre-quakes. That's happening here again courtesy of the likes of Utopia Ice City Get your vegan coconut tayberry and kaffir lime leaf cone here. Made from scratch in Sumner.
C-one Espresso is an old favourite, re-established. Coffee and food aside, visit for the impressive urban garden and historic building, the pneumatic tube slider delivery and the superb bookcase bathroom entry.
Take your pick inside Little High Eatery but Caribe Latin Kitchen does a mean burrito served in chipped enamel bowls amidst multi-hued tiles, skulls and religious icons.
If you've missed the 70's, down a fluffy duck cocktail at Retropolitan.
Visit Inati for inventive, modern culinary wizardry and excellent service from people who care deeply about food. Take a high perch at the brass-topped bar and watch the chefs make a broccoli stem sexy with the help of smoked ricotta and almonds. Make sure you talk to your neighbours because that's part of the inati – sharing – philosophy.
On Saturday mornings, find fresh produce and some of the city's favourite food vendors at the picturesque and well-attended Christchurch Farmers Market.