Tips For Eating Blind

My cousin and I went on a blind date last night, but there were no awkward moments with strange yet attractive men involved. In fact, we were the only customers at the restaurant. No, it was the food we were meeting with no prior knowledge. OK, so that’s not 100% true. I have eaten Indian food before and my cousin had been to the Udupi Village restaurant last year.

But the food was a stranger and the menu a guide for the initiated, with scant details or explanation. I ordered the Butter Masala Dosai since I knew what butter is and she chose the special thali, which was like an assortment of almost everything on the menu, or so it seemed.

If going to a restaurant whose cuisine is unfamiliar to you, an assortment-style dish is definitely the way to go. You get a sense of what flavors and dishes the restaurant feels pair well together and you have a better sense for when you return, should you find something you like.

The special thali ($13.95), which comes with soup or salad, brings a lot of food. After the soup comes two appetizers - a vegetable samosa and a lentil doughnut, which we shared.

Then, for the main course, a large metal wheel with rice and bread in the center; encircling the starches are several cups of soupy condiments or spicy toppings such as yogurt, several types of lentil dishes (sambar, rasam which is a soup, and kootu).

Aside from the occasional extra hot or sweet spice, the dishes tasted the same. There was an overlap of flavors, with a lot of lentils or potatoes. This meant there was a consistency between plates which was good since the flavors were really intense - nothing was particularly mild or subtle (and I’m not just talking about spiciness since only one tiny portion could have been considered “hot”).

I went with the dosai, which was a giant (1 foot in length) because I have heard it is a significant part of southern Indian cuisine (not sure if that’s accurate, though). The dosai, or crepe, was cooked with butter and filled with onions, potatoes and nuts. It came with sambar, a soupy dish of lentils and a sweet chutney. The crepe dough itself was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside - so it both held together well and absorbed the juices from the filling really well. The spices that the potatoes and onions were cooked in weren’t really my favorite but the crepe was great and the dish was really filling.

For dessert we had the pistachio ice cream (ok, but nothing special, and not made by the restaurant) and the rasamalai, a home made cottage cheese in a condensed milk with rose water and pistachios (we were only able to have a bite. It wasn’t what we were expecting/hoping it’d be).

Unless I have a vegetarian friend I want to treat for dinner, or want to introduce a friend to the dosai experience, I can’t see myself making the effort to return.

Udupi Village
511 Bloomfield Avenue
Montclair
(973) 233-1905
http://udupivillage.com/menu.htm

— by Donna M.
Both a Jersey native and recent transplant from NYC, Donna M. is obsessed with both good food and grammar.

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