My friend (& former nurse preceptor) Arati and I enjoyed the earlier part of the day scrub shopping and then lunch at an all-vegetarian South Indian restaurant near DC called, Udupi Palace. According the the restaurant's website, "Udupi" is synonymous with southern Indian style vegetarian cooking in India. Typical South Indian food is made with rice and lentils (perfect for us wheat-free souls!!) When these ingredients are blended together with spices and herbs and spread on a skillet, a variety of different types of dosai (which are basically South Indian crepes) can be made. The restaurant is located in a very busy and cultural strip mall in Takoma Park, Maryland. It's elegantly decorated with Hindu god statues and crystal chandeliers, not the tacky Bollywood-style of a lot of Indian restaurants. The servers were very attentive and immediately sat us at a table. During the weekday, they have a wonderful and extensive lunch buffet for $7.99 which is a great bargain! You can find dishes like idli, sambar and rasam, as well as a delicious variety of unusual vegetarian curries and dals. It was such a treat to have different dishes than the typical tandoori chicken and palak paneer (which I LOVE, don't get me wrong, but variety is very nice!). There was also a nice, fresh salad with several different chutneys (including coconut chutney - yum!) and pickles. When my friend and I returned to our table with our first helping, we had two wonderfully warm masala dosas awaiting us! With the coconut chutney, those dosas were like heaven! As in the beauty of buffet style, my friend and I tried everything at the buffet! (Just little helpings of each!) Everything was soooo delicious I could have eaten all day long. As my mom says, I will now dream of that food!
For dessert (yes, we're piggies!), we had a warm and very orange halwa which was like a pudding with raisins and nuts. There were also an assortment of neon colored square type things which I tried a couple of but decided that, despite the different colors, they all tasted exactly the same - sweet.
As we sat with our plates finally empty and our bellies very full (but very happy), I contemplated ordering some chai but thought it might be overkill. We left through the other door, which was an Indian bakery where the friends of the neon wedges resided. I ended up getting two Gulab Jamun for my dear husband who loves them dearly but was hard at work. That should earn me some brownie points.
Udupi Palace had 2 other locations, besides the MD one so folks in the Chicago area can also partake in delicious South Indian cuisine. The website has all the details. And for anyone in the DC area, let me know if you're interested in going because I'd love to go back!!
---------------Udupi Palace
1329 University Blvd, East
Takoma Park, MD 20192
Phone: 301.434.1531
4 comments:
Hey, let's go there when we come up for your graduation!!!! Looks great!!!!
Sounds like you had a fabulous meal with quite the variety of dishes. $7.99 - what a deal!
How did you verify the WF status of the items?
Anonymous -
I didn't. Since I only have a wheat allergy, and a slight one at that, I tend to avoid it but it won't harm me if I do consume it. However, Indian food is incredibly easy to eat wheat free because much of their bready things are made with rice or chickpea flour - iddlis, dosas, pakoras, etc.
If you are very sensitive to wheat though, I would definitely ask before trying anything, especially with food you may not be accustomed to.
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