Well, I, my wife, and my mom finally visited Sree's. Got lost going there, but recovered with not too much difficulty. It was kinda crowded and sorta dark, as we had been warned; Sree cleaned a table off for us. The environs were indeed "primitive"--styrofoam plates, beat-up furniture, everything in need of a little fixing up. Were handed a short xeroxed sheet by way of menu; we chose a couple of items, one dinner for each of us. Sree said: no, no, no, I recommend that you order only two meals, that will be more than enough for all three of you (he was right). After he took our order, he said: go ahead and help yourself to the soup. I went ahead an helped myself to the soup. It was a strange soup, white in color, not very warm, had coconut milk and coconut shreds on the bottom, and extremely spicy-hot. Very exotic--I made everyone take a taste. Later, I heard someone referring to the bowl from which I ladled the soup as the "chutney," and gosh I felt embarrassed--no wonder the native Indians were laughing. That would be like entering some American restaurant and helping yourself to a heaping bowlful of ketchup. The food was very good, though the styrofoam plates made it difficult to manage everything. Particularly good was the mango lassi, a kind of plastic thick mango milkshake-like drink served at the end of the meal. Total cost for 3 people was something like $12. We had food left over. As we were leaving, Sree said to me: "Thank you kindly for bringing your mother to our establishment." I felt that perhaps I had happened upon some Indian sense of affirmation, that is, bringing one's elders' in was a maybe a sign of honorification or something. Sorta like a Parisian restaurant isn't considered authentic by the locals until an actual French person eats in it. Maybe. In any rate, I replied that the pleasure had indeed been all ours, and we left. I liked it and will be going back.
Pittsburgh, PA