thali

As part of our focus on food today for India Week, restaurant chain Masala Zone describe authentic Indian street food and its ingredients.

One of India's culinary glories is its comforting, seductive street food which offers a myriad of flavours. Almost every street corner is lined with mobile food vendors (restaurants-on-wheels) selling sumptuous snack delicacies. It is a way of life for people of all income groups, who relish the irresistible and rich tapestry of flavours, these snacks have to offer. Every busy street in India usually has rows of street food hawkers cooking and selling these delectable delicacies before your eyes. Indian street food is mouth-watering. These dishes are cooked in the open with aromas that fire the appetite and awaken the senses.

MW Eat has been a pioneer in bringing an array of delectable Indian street food to London. These can be eaten either as a starter, or as grazing food. These street food dishes are prepared in Masala Zone's open dispense kitchen in full view of customers. Although not quite the same as being on the streets of India, this can still leave a memorable impression.

As part of India Week, we are trying a different Indian dish for lunch every day this week. Each day we will be eating something from the menu at Masala Zone and will be reviewing it for you. Today's dish is the Thali.

For the first day of five we were looking forward to indulging ourselves on one of the most popular dishes in India; the thali. A thali is basically a collection of lots of smaller dishes all served together as one larger meal and is the most common way that Indians eat at home. The separate dishes are served in small bowls all on a large stainless steel platter (as the pictures show).

We went for the Grand Thali, which seemed to have about half the restaurant's dishes on it. It is a complete meal comprising of rice, a curry of your choice, lentils and vegetables all of which are nutritionally balanced. From Masala Zone they range from £9.05 up to £12.15. The exact dishes change each day, but today we EACH had the following dishes: