My experience at the Taj Chaat house was marked by the conflict between my desire to be adventurous and my lack of knowledge of Indian culture and cuisine.     Sure, I was aware of some of the cultural and historical context behind Indian cuisine, yet I was clueless about how to put that knowledge into practice when interacting with the space of the Taj Chaat house. I didn’t understand the items on the menu nor did I understand how different modifiers would affect the dish. Since I had missed Dr. Ball-Phillips’ spiel about the better parts of the menu I ended up ordering a bhindi masala subji (pictured) that wasn’t a good pick. I realized this because of the immediate food envy I experienced when my classmates’ food came out of the kitchen. In a normal restaurant situation, I would’ve interacted with the waiter or cashier more to find out what was a good choice. In the Taj Chaat house, I felt intimidated by the choices and embarrassed about my lack of knowledge to make an informed choice. This feeling results from the fact that ethnic restaurants are not meant for a Western customer such as myself.  Arijit Sen discusses the atmosphere of ethnic restaurants and how they affect people both inside and outside of the group.

In Sen’s chapter “From Curry Mahals to Chaat Café’s” Sen argues in regard to ethnic restaurants that “these places promote in-group solidarity and sustain a robust ethnic economy” (Sen 198). This effect is created by the identity and meaning that is imbued in the place. By being disconnected from this identity, I was unfamiliar with the immigrant culture that the store caters to. Sen argues that people feel unwelcome “because of their unfamiliarity with the ambiance of these spaces” (Sen 198). I’d agree with that argument because these spaces are meant to be familiar to those in the culture and unfamiliar to those outside of it. According to Sen, the purpose of these places is to facilitate the exchange of the culture that the place embodies. Even though I was aware of how uncomfortable I’d be in that situation, I was still too nervous to try and interact more with the staff. The authentic nature of the Chaat house made me feel like an outsider. It didn’t help that I was surrounded by my classmates which made me feel like I was in a tour group.

I will definitely be visiting the Taj Chaat house again because of this outsider feeling. If one wants to be adventurous, one must get out of their comfort zone. Though I was intimidated by being an outsider, my experience revealed how much this emotion can affect my ability to interact with people outside of my culture. This was the most valuable part of my experience at the Taj Chaat house. Being exposed to members of a culture unknown to me helped me better understand how to get over my outsider status in order to learn about people different from me.