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Taj Chaat House Epic Meal

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For our class’s second field trip, we traveled to the Taj Chaat House in Plano, Texas so that we could take a look around the Indian grocery store, and experience the food offered in the Chaat house in the back of the store. As a class we have been learning about Chaat Houses and their ability to lend non Indian’s a chance to experience authentic Indian foods, as well as their ability to give Indian people a taste of their own culture’s cooking. In Arijit Sen’s “From Curry Mahals to Chaat Cafés”, Sen states 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.” So with this in mind, we entered the Grocery store where I saw large bags of various rices, beans, and lentils stacked several feet high in rows that stretched over 20-30 yards. In the other aisles of the grocery store, they had all kinds of authentic Indian products. After looking around to see what kinds of snacks and treats they had, we all entered the Chaat house in the back left corner of the store. Once we entered, it was fairly empty. The menu had a huge variety of items to choose from. After reading Sen’s description of the foods they serve in these Chaat houses, I was able to recognize several items on their menu. Although I knew a few items, I was entirely overwhelmed, but willing to try something adventurous for my tastes. After consulting with our professor, who is very knowledgeable about the different foods suggested “The North Indian Thali”. This dish was described as stuffed Paratha, Biryana/plain rice, raita/ yogurt, subji, dhal, pappad. After having pretty much no clue as to what I would receive, I waited patiently with my buzzer. After about 20 minutes, everyone had their food and drinks, while I was still waiting. I realized why I had been waiting so long as soon as I received my order. The tray of food weighed around 6 pounds, and had entirely too much food on it. I thought I was hungry, but no one could possibly eat this amount of food. On the tray was a vast assortment of vegetable dishes in various sauces, some sort of Indian spiced rice, and a few different pastries. After sampling each of the items on my tray, I was already getting full and had hardly made a dent. My favorite portion of the meal, was definitely the Dosa, a very thin pancake like pastry filled with potatoes and spices. After reading about Dosa in Sen’s Feasts and Fasts, I knew what they were described as, but never knew what it looked like or tasted like. It was a very thin, crispy pastry that was slightly sweet and had savory potato filling in the middle. The flavors of the filling intermingled with the sweetness of the pastry, and the combination was very tasty. After I was too full to continue eating, I packed up the rest in a to go box that was so heavy that it was difficult to hold with one hand. Overall, the experience I had at the Taj Chaat House reflected exactly what Sen proposed; it gave me an authentic taste of what Indian cuisine has to offer, and opened me up to a whole new culinary landscape to explore.

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