The whole menu

Pearl sago tossed with potato, crushed groundnut and green chilli, finished with lemon. The fasting dish everything else on this shelf is built around, and the shop’s best seller.

The same sago and groundnut, bound with potato and fried to a crust. Crisp outside, soft through the middle — the way it stops being right if it waits too long.

Marathi-style potato bhaji made for fasting days — no onion, no garlic, cumin and green chilli instead. Eaten on its own or alongside the khichdi.

Groundnut amti — the thin, faintly sweet peanut gravy that turns a plate of sabudana into a meal. The cheapest thing on the whole menu, and one the shop marks as a best seller.

Maharashtrian groundnut curry for fasting. The shop’s own advice is to have it with the sabudana khichdi and the sabudana vada together, which is the whole upvas plate.

Steamed rice cakes, served with chutney and sambar. Spongy, and the lightest plate on the counter.

Urad dal ground and fried into rings — crisp outside, soft through the middle. Not to be confused with the sabudana vada on the fasting counter, which is a different dish entirely.

Plain rice dosa, served with chutney and sambar. The cheapest dosa on the list.

Semolina batter poured thin, so it comes out lacy and shatters rather than folds.

The dosa with a potato bhaji folded inside it. At ₹150 the most expensive thing on the menu that is not made with egg, and the best-rated dish the shop lists.

Fermented rice batter, soft in the middle with a lacy edge, and faintly sweet.

The same appam with onion through the batter — savoury where the plain one is sweet.

The Malvani pancake — rice and urad batter left to ferment overnight, soft and full of holes. Closer to home than the dosas beside it, and served with chutney.

The everyday cup — boiled long, milky, sweet. Everything else on this list is a change rung on it.

Cardamom, clove, pepper and cinnamon boiled in rather than stirred on top.

Fresh ginger crushed into the pot. The one to ask for in the monsoon, and the best-rated cup on the list.

Green cardamom alone, without the rest of the masala. Softer, and more fragrant for it.

Mint leaf steeped through. Lighter than it sounds, and the one people order after a heavy plate.

Holy basil, brewed the household way. Ordered as much for a sore throat as for the taste.

Lemongrass steeped until it turns citrus without turning sour.

No milk. The cheapest cup on the counter and, if you take it without sugar, the plainest.

Made unsweetened from the start rather than served with sugar on the side — which is the difference.

Half the sugar, same cup. On the menu because enough people ask for it that it stopped being a special request.

Chana dal and jaggery ground to a puran, sealed into a soft poli and griddled. Made fresh twice a day — 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. — so it is worth arriving inside one of those windows rather than between them.