Thursday was an adventure for my typically picky palate. I’m not a girl who goes out of her way to try new foods, particularly when I can’t properly pronounce half of the menu.

All of that flew out the window when I got a whiff of the incredible spices at the Taj Chaat House.

Tucked in the back corner of the Subji Mandi Grocers building in Plano, the menu seemed endless. Granted, so did the aisles of spices and rice in the store. I’ve never seen so many varieties and colors of lentils in my life, filling an entire aisle.

These ingredients were all put to use in the Chaat House. I can say with confidence that our group was the only non-Asian factor in the store. We turned a few heads, regulars curious about the new group, but most looked amused. I’d be pretty amused too if I saw someone marveling at a typical American food like a hot dog the way we looked at the massive dosas.

The food wasn’t the only presentation of culture. While some of the restaurant’s patrons wore scrubs or jeans and polos, a few women were in their full colorful saris. This isn’t uncommon in immigrant culture; restaurants and grocery stores like Subji Mandi and Taj serve as “important sites where ethnicity is practiced and reproduced on a daily basis” (Sen 198).

Once I wasn’t so distracted by the visual culture I was immersed in, I could focus on the smell and taste of India. The Chaat House was completely vegetarian, but that did nothing to shorten the menu. It was intimidating at the start, but I found the dish that had never let me down before: garlic naan. My first experience with it was at a Bollywood movie night almost four years ago, and it became one of my favorite carbs. If you’ve never had it, imagine the flatness and doughiness of pita bread, but with a softer, less grainy texture. Add in the garlic and its heaven on earth… or Nirvana, pick your poison. Though I was playing it safe with my meal, I added on an order of lemon rice, which seemed to have little lemon flavor. Instead, it was a little spicy, with a combination of pepper and other less common spices for an all-American palate. I was surprised, but not the least bit unhappy.

Overall, the enormous quantities of food I received cost me all of $8.50. I couldn’t actually finish it all, but there was no waste as I shared my naan with my classmates. No one can resist good garlicky bread of any kind.