Chicken biryani Photo: Shutterstock/Rujman
On Oak Tree Road in Edison on a Sunday afternoon, customers line up to park at Patel Brothers, where they do their weekly grocery shop before indulging in one of the weekend buffets served up by numerous Indian restaurants along the strip.
Often referred to as Little India, the mile-long stretch of Oak Tree Road, which dips into neighboring Iselin, is lined with shopping plazas full of Indian restaurants, supermarkets, hair salons, jewelers, electronics shops and clothing stores. With more than half of Edison’s 110,000 residents identifying as Asian, and more than one-third of Indian descent, it is no surprise that this is where you will find some of the most authentic Indian cuisine in the Northeast.
One of Edison’s most beloved Indian restaurants is Moghul, opened in 1990 by the Methani Restaurant Group, which also runs Moghul Express, the Indo-Chinese restaurant Ming, and Mithaas, which focuses on street snacks and sweets. The Methanis came here in the 1980s, at the start of a wave of Indian migration to Edison, according to CEO Kamal Arora, who left India in 2005 and joined the Methani business.
“The original Indian diaspora came to Queens and Long Island. Then two or three businesses came here in the late 1980s; then everybody started to come here, leading to a whole revolution,” said Arora during a recent Sunday brunch as he walked me through Moghul’s many copper chafing dishes filled with vegetable-laden navaratan korma, silky butter chicken, and dal studded with Kashmiri chili and fenugreek.
With more than 50 Indian dining spots, competition is fierce in Edison. Turnover is frequent in some locations, while others try to set themselves apart. Deccan Spice calls itself a modern Indian restaurant, offering artfully presented dishes and specialty cocktails, while newcomer Kesar’s specializes in thali, an Indian sampler platter. The South Indian vegetarian chain Saravanaa Bhavan offers two dozen varieties of dosas or filled pancakes.
If you don’t have time for a sit-down meal, head to the Kumar Soni food court, just over the line in Iselin, to get a takeout order of tandoori chicken, biryanis or even Indian pizza. Don’t leave town without visiting Patel Brothers to admire the vast selection of rice, beans, flours and oils. Or maybe stock up on fresh-baked rotis and parathas, on Sundays after church.
“Whoever comes from back home always visits this place,” says one local shopper. “Any type of temptation can be satisfied here.”
