A few years ago, erstwhile mutineer Manish posted here about an enterprising Tiffinwalla in New York who would deliver healthy, vegetarian lunches (“2 chapatis, rice, dal, one vegetable, appetizer, dessert and pickle/chutney”) for all of $5.
I was living in California at the time and lazy ingrate that I am, I was green with longing, even as I was eating fresh Mallu food daily at home.
It just seemed like such a fantastic concept; New Yorkers got EVERYTHING, I wistfully thought. Couldn’t the left coast have had similar, especially during that arid, empty time that my Mother was abroad for two months? 😉 I mean, protein shakes get old, y’all.
Apparently, my whining has been answered, according to a story in the grey lady which many of you were blowing up our tipline/news tab with (Thanks, Derick):
In Mumbai, formerly Bombay, the tiffin, or lunch, is prepared by the wife, mother or servant of the intended. In the United States, because of little time (and a lack of a domestic staff), many of these lunches are prepared by outsiders, but the underlying principle is the same…
Annadaata, which began as a homespun operation in 2002, has morphed into a business with several delivery people distributing meals each weekday across San Francisco. Kavita Srivathsan, 29, the chief executive of Annadaata, got her start by cooking meals for her new husband and his friends.
Srivathsan stumbled in to a market which was just waiting for someone like her to hook them up with comfort food:
She did not have a job at the time, so she spent her time learning how to cook Indian foods. Using recipes from her mother in south India, she experimented in the kitchen for a few hours each day. On a whim, she advertised $5 box meals on justindia.com, a Web site based in the San Francisco area that no longer exists. “That was the only time I ever did any advertising,” she said. “The very next day I got a few phone calls from people ordering the boxes, and from then on the word spread like wildfire.”
Mrs. Srivathsan’s business grew so fast that a few months later she decided she could no longer run it from her home. “It began as me cooking out of my kitchen, but since there was such a demand for it, I had to make it a legitimate business with a tax ID number and a rented kitchen,” she said.
Because she wanted to reach a wider market and knew that Indians generally favored cuisine from their region, she hired cooks from various areas in India, including Gujarat, south India and Punjab. Today, customers can click on her Web site, annadaata.com, to view a menu for the coming week. After choosing from among a vegetarian ($7), a nonvegetarian ($8) or a south Indian meal ($8), they place orders over the Internet and pay with credit cards.
Uh, anyone want to start this up in D.C.? Pleeease? There’s only so many times that I can stomach Chipotle/Potbelly/Subway/Raisin Bran for lunch and like the people quoted in the NYT article, it’s just not possible for me to cook. Proper South Indian food requires time, discipline and a devotion to process that I can’t muster right now and I’m not a fan of shortcuts (my mother told me this weekend at our family reunion that if she ever caught me availing myself of something like this, she’d pinch my thigh so viciously I’d need a skin graft). Owww.
Srivathsan sums it up perfectly:
At the end of the day I just wanted the basic Indian food I had grown up with.
Werd.
Anna, what are your favorite Indian places in DC? I am partial to Delhi Dhaba in Van Ness and Arlington (not the Bethesda branch, it’s worse), plus Indique in Cleveland Park.
My mommy was in India for an ENTIRE month of February. Worst month of my life. So I feel your pain sister.
Someone needs to start this up in the LA metro…
I am so hungry now, and after going back to read Manish’s post, have gathered that the NYC option seems to have gone. Is there another one available?
Otherwise, I’ll have to settle for Chipotle.
Please please someone let me know if you ever hear of something like this in the DC metro area! Veg, non-veg, I don’t care.
Yes. Please. I’ll pick up even. I’ll brave the 405 even. As long as I am not asked personal questions while i am waiting in the foyer.
For thayir sadham/dosa/rasam/kappi: Amma’s in Georgetown
For buttery, heart-stopping ma ki dal/adorable aloo tikki/pani puri: Heritage, either location.
For excellent food (palaak chaat/broccoli poriyal/flawless bhindi) and atmosphere: Rasika, since they have apologized/made it up to me. 😉
Just a quick note, you shouldn’t have though NY had everything. The Bay Area has has such a service for 5+ years now.
true…somehow, my peanut butter and jelly just doesn’t seem to hack it today
🙁 …I want me mommy’s food
Reads other people’s plight. Looks at his awesome lunch, daily surprises and all. Reminds self to send a dozen tulips to Mrs. S. For starters.
Boston-area tiffin services, anybody?
Are you specifically looking for tiffin delivery services?
I live in Virginia, and finding someone to cook for you is not terribly hard. Maybe, they won;t deliver it to you, but you can pick it up. Every other desi housewife with a smidgen of cooking talent is giving dabbas. When my wife was pregnant, she couldn’t stand the kitchen. So, she found 2 within 5 miles of our house who cook good food. Give me a day, I’ll find the website that she used to find those women.
Hell, if you live in Reston area and want North Indian instead of South Indian, my mom will be ready to cook, and all you need to do is pick the food up in the morning.
Anna, not sure if you’ve explored Columbia, MD – but there’s a somewhat upscale chain of restaurants headquartered there called Bombay Grill. I’ve never been disappointed by anything I’ve eaten at any of their restaurants – and they have good South Indian stuff. But more to the point, they currently seem to be exploring new business directions, and are actually looking for a Business Development Director. Why not talk to the contact person listed at the bottom of the page – and tell her where the real business opportunity is – lunch/tiffin to-go for busy 1-gen, 1.5-gen, and 2-gen South Asian professionals – esp. SI food – not necessarily all-you-can-eat buffets! With this blog, (and its phenomenal stats) you’re uniquely well-placed to influence market dynamics, and hundreds if not thousands of DC area folks will thank you if you are successful!
A while back I saw another article that pointed out that most of these services don’t last very long – it’s exhausting, the margins are small, and working at scale risks discovery of what is essentially a grey operation. I’ll see if I can dig it up tonight.
I found this in the Washington DC area. Has anyone tried any of these?
And I found this for the Los Angeles area. I am sure if you look, you can find Indian food catered in many cities with a sizable Indian population.
Quite true. I think they touch upon this in the NYT article, too.
Also, part of the issue is what defines “D.C.” South Dupont is far from Reston, for example. People in cities who don’t have cars won’t find it easy to pick something up in the morning like our friend here is willing to do. Tiffin deliveries in Arlington won’t help those in downtown, etc.
Catered isn’t quite as convenient as “delivered”. 😉
I’ve long considered starting a tiffin service in Philadelphia. There is a sizable desi population in Philly, and the options for khanna (Karma, and Cafe Spice), while good, can be hard to get, especially over lunch.
I do love to cook, and I make some dishes fairly well, but I wasn’t sure if people would trust a gora-run dabbawallah service.
Still, I think about the idea often, especially when I get fed up with the IT industry.
I’ve tried Annadaata’s once and it was good – low oil, reasonable sodium without compromising on taste. My grouse is the tons of rice and relatively less amount of vegetable they dole out in their packages. Hardly a way for us sedentary engineers to eat. Still, it does approximate to home cooked food. gg
There are catering services(yellow pages) for people on health diets which will cook food based on the doctors recommendation. One more thing they do is, they will cook based on recipes that you give. This is present in almost all major cities. The only question would be are they willing to cook curry for you.
Reason 546 why I love y’all — you know exactly what’s on my mind! I’m a Southie here in DC too, crazy jonsing for some Indian food that I can either pick up or have made at home. I mean, Amma is great and all, but sometimes, a girl’s just got to have some rasam, beans poriyal and thayir sadam. Know what I mean?
ps — I called one of the numbers listed on Sulekha like a week ago and no one has responded…
Anna woman up and learn how to cook it stop being a wimp.
SM Intern: Troll Alert!
That’s true, but if South Dupont (or wherever you live in DC) has a sizable Indian population, then it is not hard to find a housewife who is ready to cook for you and make money on the side. Making tiffins is the oldest idea in the world. I would be surprised to find a housewife who hasn’t toyed with the idea, and there is no dearth of housewives among desis
Sure thing sweetheart– right after YOU sack up, shut up and
a) get a job where you work my 60-hour weeks b) stop being an anonymous coward.
Then I’ll be HAPPY to stay home and grind rice for my own arripodi. Idiot.
Dear Commenter #23 (aka Doug),
It’s come to our attention that you have a severe case of idiocy. Unfortunately, we don’t know of a cure for this condition, but as it can be contagious we please ask that you take your attitude and leave.
Thanks, The Rest Of Us
I get the first and last at Amma all the time, actually. In fact, I just order the thali and mix the chor and thayir with sambar and lemon pickle in that iconic steel pathram…it’s bliss. My problem is that Amma isn’t near my job and they don’t deliver. I work at Gallery Place/Chinablock and would love delivery in THAT ‘hood.
This post reminded me of the “Cook and See” (Samaithu Paar) series written by S. Meenakshi Ammal back in the day. These cookbooks have become huge over time.
From what I understand, the books gained popularity among newlywed South Indian women who were going abroad with their husbands (so 60s, 70s). They were expected to cook, etc., but didn’t have any easy way to reach relatives for culinary questions. That’s where S. Meenakshi Ammal stepped in…
I’m actually intrigued to know if anyone’s done any sort of study of Samaithu Paar and where it was most popular, who used it, who still recalls it, etc. Has anyone else heard of this book? Do you remember it in your kitchen?
Here’s a link to the website of whoever now has the rights to S. Meenakshi Ammal’s name: http://www.meenakshiammal.com
there actually is a tiffin service in philly: https://tiffin.com/
haven’t used it myself though. i think it’s by the same guy who did Karma…
For those in the DC area: I love Tiffin, in Langley Park (just a mile from the University of Maryland on University Blvd (193)). It’s nothing fancy but the service is excellent and the food’s pretty good…they have a lunch buffet that really hits the spot. They have a sister restaurant on the next block, Udupi.
http://www.tiffinrestaurant.com/
It’s not Rasika (which is sooo yummy) but it’s a great weekend lunch and a friendly staff. Mostly North Indian food.
since we’re talking about food…are there any good places in philly to get south indian food? or chaat?
Restaurant recs are always good but just to clarify for anyone who might be interested, we’re discussing THIS tiffin. Not that one. 😉
what’s the other tiffin?
There’s a restaurant called “Tiffin”, which Melissa was referring to…just trying to keep things clarified like ghee.
Yes, let’s stay focused here. Lots of hungry desis in the DC area waiting for that list of lunch or dinner pick-ups or deliveries. Hell, I’ll even include Reston in my definition of DC if it means that I can finally have some avial.
Wow, so there is a tiffin service in Philadelphia! Color me happy! And yeah, it looks like the same guys who run Karma. Good deal.
I think there are a couple. But as someone mentioned, they are often fly-by-night operations. I guess it’s a stressful job. I’ll ask my friend about the one she uses and post back here if it’s still around.
Maurice Reeves, I would trust a gora-run tiffin service. Unfortunately I don’t live in Philly.
Anna, I know you don’t want to use pre-made dosa mix but one of the stores in NoVa has a really good homemade one that my mom uses. It’s actually better than her’s (and my mom is an amazing cook) so we don’t feel guilty about it. And for vellappams, there is a mix called “double horse”, you just add water, and they actually are really good. Idlis–the rava kind–MTR mix–just add yogurt. The plain idlis don’t taste as good. Sambar I make from scratch. I’m a food purist too but if this is the only way I can get it, I’ll take what I can get.
The problem with restaurants in the DC area is that their quality is never guaranteed. One month they will have great food, next month really bad, and mediocre in the one after that. I visit Woodlands in the Langley Park area about once a month, and one month they had kheer made with somewhere around 17 ingredients, and the next month, kheer was day old rice mixed with sweetened milk flavored with pista flavoring. I don’t know what happens to them. It’s like going to new place every time. Maybe they up their ante when the clients drop, and use cheap materials when there are too many people. Maybe they keep losing cooks. And the funny thing is that if quality of one place drops, the competitor’s quality will rise. Similar tthing happenned with Woodlands and Shravana palace in Fairfax. Woodlands had what I would term, passable quality of food, up until Shravana Palace opened up. Shravana Palace was cooking everything in pure ghee when it opened up, and you couldn’t find a place to stand in the waiting area. Within a month, Woodland’s quality improved and Shravana Palace become worse to a point where Woodlands was better
Getting to the point:- I wouldn’t recommend any of the Indian restaurants, that I know of, to someone who is looking for regular food, because the quality isn’t consistent. THe only restaurant that had a consistent quality of food will stay unnamed because it was consistently bad
I meant that as a tongue in cheek statement lighten up.
Sparky,
The only place where I have had decent south Indian food in philly is close to Franklin Mills called Udupi Dosa House or something similar. There is another tiffin service recently started in New York, Jersey City area by the guy who started Earth in Chelsea.
I tried calling the 212 number from Manish’s old entry but no dice…Anyone know if it’s still around?
First you mock my cooking skills, now you order me to bleach myself? Cheee! My uber-brown skin is lowely, yaaaar. Don’t take it, please be leaving it. Thank you, pun again.
(Someone take this fourth iced latte away from me, for all of your sakes…)
Ennis touched on this a bit (#15)… but I’m wondering if these services fly totally under the radar of health inspectors, or whether they’d legitimately have something to say about it. Believe me, I have no problem with these services at all, but wondering if it’s technically “illegal” and how a big, well-known business like Annadaata specifically might be dealing with that. Not so much the preparation facilities, but issues with how long the food sits at “unsafe temperature” in transit while being delivered…? Anyone have the lowdown?
Also, Anna, what’s the problem with buying someone’s homemade dosa batter!? What’s the difference if you get a dosa delivered already made by someone else, or if you just buy their batter and fry it up yourself! Would work for me! Tell your ma to save the pinches for situations where they’re really needed! 😉
I think you should raise that highly logical point with my Mother, with my full support and admiration. I will be totally behind you. Literally. She has short arms, so she’ll hurt you first. 😉
You’ve read Bharati Mukerjee’s “Wife” ?
I’d like to add two comments:
My cousin, Vikram Sunderam, is the head chef of Rasika. He showed us how to make the palak chaat when he came home for the holidays. SUCH a good idea and really easy!!! The hardest part is having fresh spinach available …
Proper Indian cooking (in fact cooking in general) is NOT a giant time sink if you keep it simple. You’ll find there are a lot of nice things you can eat that are not challenging. For instance, making a good, hot rasam with some nice vegetable is VERY easy. You can use frozen or canned things, tamarind concentrate, etc to cut down on time. If you are expecting mutter paneer with freshly made paneer, or masala dosa / rava idlis in your first month, then that’s another story. I can’t speak to meat and fish preparation issues though because I’m vegetarian.
The prices from the site that the NY times links to is currently $9 per delivery. Maybe I’m being a cheap ass desi but isn’t that too much for a tiffin?
I see that I can’t win here. I would never mock your cooking skills just saying.
Anyone up for an eleventh hour sort of meetup in DC this weekend? I’m thinking either dinner or Sunday brunch, @ Heritage Dupont, b/c they take such fantastic care of us. It’s been a while, innit? Three months? Yeesh.