Dipak Patel came to America from India in 1987.
Patel came to America in search of a better life with more opportunities, he said.
When he first arrived in the states, he lived in New Jersey. He lived there for a few years before moving to Jacksonville, Fla., in 1992.
In 2000, Patel’s brother reached out to him about a work opportunity in Valdosta, he said. So, Patel moved to the small town of Valdosta and worked with his brother while running a small catering business on the side.
He got into the catering business because of his wife, Patel said. She had an interest in the food industry.
In 2012, Patel expanded his catering operations, he said. Until the expansion, he would cater for small events and families.
After he expanded, he would cater for weddings and larger events because of the growing demand for food services.
Eventually, he said, the demand grew to a point where members of the Indian community asked Patel to open a restaurant.
So, in March, Patel opened Surti Dhaba Street Cafe.
Customers may order from the menu throughout the day, but a buffet is available from 11 a.m.-3 p.m.
All of the meat served is halal, Patel said. Halal meat is meat blessed according to Islamic laws and custom and is safe for Muslims to eat.
The style from catering to restaurant wasn’t easy, Patel said.
In catering, once the food is cooked, it is put out for the patrons to eat and that’s it, he said. But in a restaurant, the cooks have to keep cooking all day.
Patel serves food from throughout India, he said. There are differences in the foods made in northern and southern India.
Food in the north is gravy heavy, Patel said. The south uses more rice and lentils.
Northern Indian food is referred to as Punjab specialties at the restaurant, Patel said.
Some of the northern foods include a malai kofta, dumplings of mixed vegetables and spices in a creamy gravy; paneer (a type of cheese) pasanda, homemade cheese cooked in dry nuts with spices; navrattan korma, mixed vegetable and spice dumplings in a cashew and yogurt gravy and bhaigan bharta, smoked, mashed eggplant cooked with spices and a tomato gravy.
The southern food is usually sold as a filled crepe, Patel said.
Along with regional dishes, Patel serves a myriad of Indian dishes including chaat, thali, tandoori and Indo-Chinese.
Chaat is Indian street food, Patel said. Similar to a hotdog stand in America.
Some of the chaat dishes include dabeli, a mixture of potatoes, vegetables and spices served as sliders; dahi vada, deep-fried rice and lentil donuts topped with spices and yogurt and matki chaat, a mixed fruit salad with boiled dry peas with a lemony flavor.
Tandoori is a way of cooking, Patel said. Chefs use a large clay oven to cook the food.
Dishes cooked using the tandoori include murg mirch kebob, boneless chicken cooked in a mixture of reg and green chilies; lamb boti kebob, lamb cubes cooked with Indian spices and yogurt, chicken murg hariali, chicken marinated in mint and cilantro.
Indo-Chinese is Chinese food made with Indian flavor, Patel said. The recipes use both Indian and Chinese spices.
Some of the Indo-Chinese dishes include veg Manchurian, deep-fried vegetable balls with soya sauce based in gravy and spices, hakka noodles, noodles mixed with vegetables with soy sauces and is based in gravy and Szechwan fried rice, rice cooked with ginger garlic, onion-fried vegetables and a special Indo-Chinese sauce.
Thali is a sampler plate, Patel said. The dishes allow customers to choose from five to seven items on the menu.
Patel said while he serves traditional Indian food, residents in the Indian community aren’t the only patrons he has picked up. Throughout the week, students from Valdosta State University and airmen from Moody Air Force Base come in regularly.
Patel said he has had customers come in and take a menu home and look up different items on the internet before coming back in to order. Other times, customers have ordered seven or 10 items on the menu and take most of it home to eat.
Typically, Indian residents have been coming in on the weekends, and not as much during the week, Patel said.
Patel allows patrons to bring in a tiffin, or an Indian lunch box, to store food from the restaurant to eat later, he said.
The tiffin allows customers to come in, order food and eat the food later while still being warm, he said.
Surti Dhaba Street Cafe, 1900 Gornto Road, Suite E, 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. For more information, call (229) 262-2864.
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