On the occasion of Diwali, we wanted to spend sometime at my parents’ place in Madipakkam and planned to have lunch along with them. I was very keen that we order food from somewhere, because we wanted to spend some time talking to each other, and didn’t want my mother and wife to be stuck in the kitchen the whole time we were going to be there.\n\n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t

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\nMy food preference is not an issue and pretty much anything works, but parents are strict vegetarians and do not prefer too much of spicy masala stuff from the restaurants, though once in a while they relish it. The challenge was to order from such a place that makes tasty vegetarian home-made food.
\nImmediately remembered the Facebook message from one of the WCE fellow members and thought about Asha Home Foods. They are based in Velachery and I have already ordered once from them, coincidentally, for last Diwali \ud83d\ude42 and I have blogged about it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They had two options that I could choose from –
\nDiwali Lunch Combo<\/strong> (Available on 10th and 11th)
\nLocation: Velachery only
\nOrder to be made by 9th and 10th evening respectively
\n1 Kachori + 1 Savory
\nMalpuva, kheer and another sweet
\nChola subji with 2 batura \/ poori
\nBesibela bath
\nPapad, onion pieces and chutneys
\nPrice: 230 Rs<\/p>\n

Special Punjabi Lunch Combo<\/strong> on 11th only ( order before 10th evening )
\n1 Kachori + 1 savory
\nMalpuva, kheer and another sweet
\nRajma + Ghee Basmati Rice
\nPaneer (cashew based) butter+ Normal subzi + 3 plain\/ghee roti
\nPapad, onion pieces and chutneys
\nPrice: 300 Rs
\nExtra ghee Roti: Rs 12 each, Extra kachori: Rs 15 each
\nContact: Sanjay: +91-7200866987<\/p>\n

Special Punjabi Lunch Combo caught my eye and I was curious if they could do that for Lunch on 10th, though the menu specifically said it was for 11th only. We were 4 Adults and 2 Kids (aged 10 and 5). So decided to order 6 numbers of Special Punjabi Lunch Combo. They were kind enough to accommodate my request. Asked for a delivery at 11:30AM so I could carry all of it to Madipakkam to my parents’ place.
\nFirst of all, the verdict : Tasty home-made food without extra oil or overpowering masala. Everyone in our family liked it, especially my parents. A fitting Diwali lunch indeed !
\nI am a basically a sucker for North-Indian food and somehow my preference hasn’t changed over the years. I would prefer a Dal and a Gravy with Roti and a few pieces of cut onion any day to Sambhar and Rasam with rice. Looking at all that was mentioned in the menu, it was quite elaborate and I was waiting to get my hand on it.
\nThe delivery was prompt. There was a delay of 10 minutes which was informed to me well in advance and I was perfectly fine with that! There was no spillage, all the boxes were well packed. In fact after carrying it from our place to Madipakkam, even then everything was pretty much intact.
\nWe didn’t have big plates, and a lot of bowls, else we could have replicated a huge ‘Thali’ effect. \ud83d\ude09 Anyway, we started off with sweets – Gulab Jamun, Malpua and Kheer. All the three were wonderful. I liked the Rice kheer best among the three, not too sweet, just right. I’m sure they would have been even more awesome if they were served hot. Getting the food delivered has its own shortcomings, you wouldn’t get the same experience as eating it right out of the flame. Kachori was tasty but a couple of them were not as crispy as the one I had, but with the cut onions and mint chutney, it was very nice! The other savoury with it was the ‘vadaam’ aka rice krispies and that was quite ordinary, nothing very special. 3 Ghee rotis per plate, soft and nice. In fact I asked for 3 to be packed separately without ghee and that was well taken care of ! There were 2 gravies for the roti – Paneer Butter with cashew which tasted very nice. It was very slightly sweet and the kids loved it. Potato Masala\/Bhaji was quite good with the Roti. Still more to come was the Rajma and ghee Basmati rice. This was good too. I would have liked this a slightly spicy, but as luck would have it, kids liked this too and ate this without any complaints about the chilly and spice. There was papad, and achaar and by the time we were even close to finishing it, it was pretty heavy !
\nThere was not a single item that I would consider even close to bad! Very tasty and clearly a home-made feel to it. I’m mentioning this explicitly because you can set your expectations clear. The portions are huge and probably be okay for a good eater. It was a bit too much for us and hence we have it all packed safely to be eaten again for dinner ! So its going to be another round of North Indian food at home in a while. The price was 300 per plate. I wouldn’t like to compare this with equivalent fare from restaurants because clearly there is a difference. This is specifically made to order and given the number of varieties and its taste, I felt it was definitely worth it.
\nI would certainly recommend Asha Home Foods for a nice North Indian meal. Not too sure of their delivery range, but since we’re both based in Velachery, I’m sure I’m gonna get my order without any issue \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n