Sri Ganesh gets my thumbs up.

The last time I went to Jersey City, my ex-girlfriend and I took 45 minutes to figure out in which direction Newark Avenue lay (sometimes “memorizing” the Google map works out well, sometimes not).  Once we figured it out (and I don’t recall how we did), the resulting trip to Dosa Hut was well worth it.

This time around, I didn’t have a lot of extra time for “exploration,” but fortunately already knew which direction to walk from the Journal Square Transportation Center.  Taking a long lunch over the state border requires a quick pace and well-timed trains in order to make the round trip in an hour and a half, but I was in dire need of a little spice in my day.

The source of the fire was the recently Voice-reviewed Sri Ganesh’s Dosa House, which has materialized a little further down Newark Avenue’s dead end.  The menu is quite extensive – tens of variations on the basic crepe – but I stuck to the butter masala dosa ($4.50), which features a yellow-tinged potato chunk-mash, sided with the usual coconut chutney and a new-to-me peanut variety.  I can’t say that the coconut chutney is as spicy as I recall Dosa Hut’s being (same goes for the sambar, which is the self-service lentil soup to the right of the cash register), but that was a while and many spicy dishes ago.  The nutty chutney was a bit hotter, and I looked in vain for a jar of it at Patel’s Cash and Carry on the way home (made fresh, I’d gather).

Also, if you’ve only had dosas in Manhattan, take note: these things are huge!  They’re a foot and a half or more in diameter, overflowing the ends of your tray like two-by-fours sticking out of the back of a pickup.  Delicate balancing is required as you shuttle your way back to the table (the counterperson will call out your number when your order is ready), particularly if you order one of the Indian sodas, which come in a tall glass bottle and seem particularly tippy.

Even with the PATH fare ($3 round trip), the meal including drink was only $9.  If taking a long lunch were a crime, and I thus just made it a federal case by crossing the border, I only hope the judge would take a Thums Up as a bribe.