Madurai Kitchen in Arlington Heights

Because southern India is the only part of India in which I've traveled, I'm always pleased to see a place open that offices food from this part of the subcontinent. Today, thanks to NW Suburban Restaurant Week, I was motivated to try a relatively new (10 months old) entry in this category -- Madurai Kitchen in Arlington Heights. Madurai is a city in Tamil Nadu -- so very far south in India.

Since there were just two of us, we thought having a thaali would be a good idea, as it would give us the widest possible sampling of dishes without having a large group. Wow, was this good food. Hard to say which item was best -- the goat biryani may have been my singly favorite item (out of the 15 on the thaali), but everything was outstanding. Also loved the deep-fried anchovies. But seriously, everything was so good.

Didn't have dosa, but saw one going past, and it was impressive.

Also impressive was the fact that pretty much everyone dining there was clearly from southern India. So definitely meeting a need. And the place was packed (at 2:30 in the afternoon).

The service was not what one might call polished, but it was charmingly friendly and immensely enthusiastic. Just loved every minute of this.

Definitely recommend. As noted in "opening and closing" thread, this is in the building once home to Chowpatti.

https://www.madurai-kitchen.com/menu

1035 S Arlington Heights Rd
Arlington Heights, IL 60005

Sounds good!

Cynthia wrote:Since there were just two of us, we thought having a thaali would be a good idea, as it would give us the widest possible sampling of dishes without having a large group.

What's a thaali?

nsxtasy wrote:Sounds good!

Cynthia wrote:Since there were just two of us, we thought having a thaali would be a good idea, as it would give us the widest possible sampling of dishes without having a large group.

What's a thaali?

From Wikipedia

thaali, is a necklace that the groom ties around the bride's neck in the Indian subcontinent, in a ceremony called Mangalya Dharanam within a Hindu wedding. The necklace serves as a visual marker of status as a married Hindu woman.

nsxtasy wrote:Sounds good!

Cynthia wrote:Since there were just two of us, we thought having a thaali would be a good idea, as it would give us the widest possible sampling of dishes without having a large group.

What's a thaali?

usually spelled "thali" though their menu also adds the extra A - it's a platter of several smaller items. basically a sampler platter.

Indian version of a bento box.

Dave148 wrote:Indian version of a bento box.

Yes -- but a lot more food. So go hungry, if you're going with the thaali.

dudefella wrote:

nsxtasy wrote:Sounds good!
usually spelled "thali" though their menu also adds the extra A - it's a platter of several smaller items. basically a sampler platter.

It's one of the issues one encounters when transliterating from a different alphabet. Lots of different spellings for just about everything. And since they spell it Thaali, I figured it would be easier for people to identify it on the menu if that is how it was rendered here.

Cynthia wrote:

dudefella wrote:usually spelled "thali" though their menu also adds the extra A - it's a platter of several smaller items. basically a sampler platter.

It's one of the issues one encounters when transliterating from a different alphabet. Lots of different spellings for just about everything. And since they spell it Thaali, I figured it would be easier for people to identify it on the menu if that is how it was rendered here.[/quote]

dudefella wrote:usually spelled "thali" though their menu also adds the extra A - it's a platter of several smaller items. basically a sampler platter.

It's one of the issues one encounters when transliterating from a different alphabet. Lots of different spellings for just about everything. And since they spell it Thaali, I figured it would be easier for people to identify it on the menu if that is how it was rendered here.

And just a general question -- I responded as soon as the question was posted about the Thaali -- long entry with background -- and it's gone. I'm wondering if I hit "safe draft" rather than "post" -- and if I did, where would it have gone? It doesn't matter now, as the question has been answered, but it would be nice to know what happened to my explanation.

Cynthia wrote:And just a general question -- I responded as soon as the question was posted about the Thaali -- long entry with background -- and it's gone. I'm wondering if I hit "safe draft" rather than "post" -- and if I did, where would it have gone? It doesn't matter now, as the question has been answered, but it would be nice to know what happened to my explanation.

If you hit save draft, then if you go to respond to this thread there will be an option below the composition window to reload the draft. It will be button on the right that normally states 'save draft.'

If you did not hit save draft and went on to look at something else in the same window, it can be lost. If you noticed it immediately, there is a chance to recover if you go-back.

Years ago and possibly even today, if you composed a message taking over an hour and then hit 'submit post.' LTH might have timed out and your post vanished. Sometimes if you are lucky and go-back, you might recover .

Regards,
Cathy2

Cathy2 wrote:

Cynthia wrote:And just a general question -- I responded as soon as the question was posted about the Thaali -- long entry with background -- and it's gone. I'm wondering if I hit "safe draft" rather than "post" -- and if I did, where would it have gone? It doesn't matter now, as the question has been answered, but it would be nice to know what happened to my explanation.

If you hit save draft, then if you go to respond to this thread there will be an option below the composition window to reload the draft. It will be button on the right that normally states 'save draft.'

If you did not hit save draft and went on to look at something else in the same window, it can be lost. If you noticed it immediately, there is a chance to recover if you go-back.

Years ago and possibly even today, if you composed a message taking over an hour and then hit 'submit post.' LTH might have timed out and your post vanished. Sometimes if you are lucky and go-back, you might recover .

Regards,
Cathy2

Thanks.

I'm guessing that either I failed to hit "save draft" or else there must be a limit to how many other posts there are before I notice -- or something -- because there is no trace of it.

But the question was answered -- more succinctly than I would have done it. I'll just have to be more careful in the future and make sure I always hit "submit," and never "save."