Last Thursday, my class took a field trip to the Taj Chaat House. Today, Chaat is incredibly popular in the United States. A simple google search indicated that there are three Chaat Houses/Cafes within a 40 minute drive of where we are. Arjit Sen describes the origins and growing popularity of Chaat in his book, From Curry Mahals to Chaat Cafes. Arjit Sen says, “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” (Gabaccia 1998; Bonus 2000). I could not agree more with that statement. I think culture diffuses most easily through food because it is a great way to share one’s culture with others. Food is such an important part of India’s history and culture, it is no surprise why Food is the underlying theme of our class.

I arrived and saw the big ‘Subji Mandi’ sign, from the outside it looks somewhat like a regular grocery store but once you step inside you take one look at the aisles and you quickly realize this is a unique grocery store. The aisles are wide and filled with rice and spices by the pound. There are also numerous other Indian snacks and products I am not familiar with, but I am sure they are very popular in India. To actually get to the Chaat House, you have to walk to the very end of the grocery store and take a left. The Chaat House is somewhat hidden and once you walk in you see some tables and a huge menu displayed above the counter. The menu had several pictures of the food options and they were all very colorful and you could tell they would all be packed with flavor. I honestly had no idea what to order but a classmate recommended the Masala Dosa.

The Masala Dosa was ready in about five minutes, I think the casualness and fast pace of the Chaat House makes it very fun. The Masala Dosa from the outside looked like a giant crepe. The middle of the crepe was filled with a potato type mix with a little bit of herbs and possibly some type of spice I was unfamiliar with. The taste was unique. I think the concept of the Masala Dosa is great, the crepe holds everything perfectly and I imagine it can be filled with endless combinations of food. I also tried the free soup they had and I liked it a lot, It was very flavorful. It was cool to see what my classmates ordered because it seemed everyone got something different.

Given that the Chaat House is so hidden, I feel the customers who visit it must be regulars who have known about it for a long time. I think it would be unlikely a random person would randomly stumble into an Indian supermarket and walk to the back to try out the hidden Chaat House. This is actually not a bad thing because I think this place can spread through word of mouth and just walking through the market to get to the restaurant is an experience in itself. Overall, my first time trying Indian Food was a fun experience and I think trying Indian food in a Chaat House inside a grocery store is much cooler than just going to a regular Indian restaurant.