Melissa Gladden

Taj Chaat House

For our second excursion, we drove out to the Taj Chaat House in Plano, Texas to get a taste of India. From the description, our teacher gave me and my class, I knew in advance that the Taj Chaat House would be in the back of a grocery store, but what I had not anticipated was the sheer amount of grain, rice, and lentils that I would see upon walking in. Bags of grain, rice, and lentils piled up to five feet off the ground and stretched the length of the grocery store all the way back to the Chaat House, whose double-door-sized opening sat at the left side of the grocery store so all customers could easily access it. When we walked in, there were a lot of mixed reactions—spreading between surprise, worry, distress, and curiosity. My reaction was that of curiosity. The menu was chocked full of items that I had never heard of before, let alone seen, and the names they were given were hard to read—let alone pronounce. I was lost—and who better to help me figure out what to order as an adventurous eater than my teacher herself. On her instruction, I ordered a masala dosa, which she described as a crepe with a vegetable filling and what I assumed would be masala spice. Having read Feasts and Fasts: A History of Food in India, I knew already that a dosa was “made from a batter of lentils and rice” (Sen 142), but I did not know that they had to ferment the batter overnight. Because I had never seen a dosa in real life or in picture form, I was expecting a crepe-like pastry to come out from behind the counter, but it ended up looking more like a giant, thin-pastry cannoli with filling only in the very middle. Light brown in color, the crisp pastry folded together like a burrito and then stood static over the side of the plate in both directions. Needless to say, I was intrigued. When I tried it, I found that the center comprised of a mix of potatoes and masala seasoning. Overall, I very much enjoyed it!

Upon reflection, I realized that I had experienced exactly the value of Chaat Houses that which Sen discussed in his article, From Curry Mahals to Chaat Café’s: that “the importance of food in immigrant culture makes restaurants, grocery stores, and kitchens important sites where ethnicity is practiced and reproduced on a daily basis.” Upon tasting the food and seeing the environment that the Chaat House produced, I realized that he was correct. I was experiencing the reproduction of Indian food that made me understand more about the culture that produced it as well as the value in studying it. Truly, this food not only makes Indian natives feel at home in a foreign country, but also helps those foreign to this type of ethnic food come to appreciate it and the culture that produced it. Upon looking around, I saw that my classmates were having equally as enlightening—or sometimes very unpleasant—experiences with this ethnic food. Though I would never consider vegetarianism as a suitable option to satisfy my own food preferences, I definitely see why the Indians are so able to produce solely vegetarian food that prevents one from missing meat. Overall, the Taj Chaat House was an excellent investment of $10.00 and I would definitely return (in fact, I already have)!