Wrestling With Nostalgia at Saravana Bhavan

"In Edison, New Jersey — in the town’s own “Little India” amid sari stores and Patel Brothers — Saravanaa Bhavan became the place my family turned to on meatless nights, a spot where I could finally relax instead of feeling conspicuous; the branch opened in 2006 and is a family-oriented, hole-in-the-wall setting where grandmothers and grandfathers lean back in wooden chairs and rap their knuckles impatient for service, children on booster seats sip salty-sweet mango lassis, and we sank idlis and uttapams into warm, tangy sambar and finished with kesari bath." - Bindu Bansinath