So my rooommate and I decided to expand our culinary horizons a bit tonight, so we got takeout from the Southern Indian place near the grocery store. The very nice man there, upon hearing that we didn’t really know what we wanted, suggested two combination items, which between them had a number of different things. So we took them home, opened them up, and got:
-1 large container of rice-with-vegetables
-4 puffy pastry bread things (not nan, much lighter)
-1 big floppy stuffed crepe thing
-1 samosa
-approximately 12 small circular plastic containers that you would expect to find sauce in, except that they contained a baffling variety of things, some of them clearly entree-related. One of them contained what appeared to be a candied plum.
It was baffling. What were we supposed to mix with what? What was sauce and what was main course? Were we supposed to put things on the pastries? And how did we end up with only 1 samosa and 1 crepe thing, given that those were the two best items?
We basically improvised, and it was pretty good, but man, we sure could have used some instructions, or at least labels.
The crepe was a dosa. They’re yummy.
Rice with veggies? Biryani.
As for sauces, I just set them up so they make a spectrum of hot to cool (white is sweet, red is medium, green is hot) and mix and match.
Rice with vegetables, almost certainly a vegetable biryani.
Puffy pastry bread, probably a roti or chapati, both words are used for the same basic thing depending on what region of India you’re in and who you’re talking to.
Big floppy stuffed crepe thing - probably a dosa. The most common stuffing, in my experience, is, concepts loosely translated into english, spiced potato casserole, known as aloo masala(spiced potatoes). The menu at the south Indian restaurant across the street just calls this a “masala dosa” because potatoes are taken as a given as part of the dish.
The twelve small containers were probably a result of ordering a thali.
The thing that looked like a candied plumb was probably a gulab jamun and should be eaten sparingly because it’s basically candied, and then fried, cheese :eek:
Enjoy,
Steven
The rice with vegetables might have been a biryani, or just a pullao, or something else. The candied plum was probably a chutney. I’d suggest eating at the restaurant next time, and asking the owner or waiter what everything is. (You can even ask any Indians in the restaurant about the food; they’re generally very hospitable.)
Oh, and to answer your procedural questions. A thali dinner is kind of like ordering a sampler. It comes with small amounts of lots of stuff. Yes, it’s fine, and normal, to mix stuff up. The “main” dishes in what you’ve described would be the dosa and the vegetable biryani. The sides were probably various assortments of the dal curry of the day, soup(sambar and rossam being two of the most common), various chutneys and pickles(more like what is called relish here), and a bit of a yoghurt dish(maybe raita). The chutneys and pickles are to add different flavors to whatever mouthful you’re about to take, and the yoghurt dish cuts the heat and acts as a palate cleanser between bites. It’s a holistic style of eating when you get a thali.
Enjoy,
Steven
MaxTheVool, which restaurant was this? Pasand is my old standby for Southern Indian in that area. Eat in there and ask lots of questions.
The puffy light bread was probably a puri.
I’m very rarely super-politically correct, but I do avoid eating at the Pasand restaurants.
- Tamerlane
Yowza. No, it was not one of those. I’ve forgotten the name, but it was on Homestead in Santa Clara just west of San Tomas, in the same big strip mall as a Safeway and a Taco Bell.
Wow! I didn’t know about this. Food and service at Pasand has always been excellent, but I don’t like the idea of subsidizing Reddy.
In any event, the Pasand that was on Lawrence at San Tomas is now gone. In its place is a Bombay Garden, also very good. But I do miss my masala dosas prepared extra hot. Pasand could do spicy hot South Indian food like nobody’s business.
Reddy is a real scumbag though, and I suspect that the closure of the Santa Clara location may have something to do with his legal problems.
There are a few other South Indian restaurants in the area (Lawrence & San Tomas) and from what I’ve heard from my Desi co-workers, many of the places are pretty good and would be worthwhile trying.
Pasand (in Berkeley) was my favorite Indian restaurant and I was morally obligated to stop eating there when the Reddy scandal came out my senior year of college. I still miss the masala dosas. 
I still haven’t found any that come close to the ones at Pasand.
Poppadums are deep fried but crispy - what the OP is describing sound like puris to me. Just my opinion, though.
I second that the other sauce containers were probably pickles and chutneys to dip everything in. Mmmmmm… Brinjal (eggplant) pickle. Now I have to make Indian food tonight.