New Indian Food Truck Brings Competition for Local Lunch Crowd

There's a new choice for lunch in downtown Silver Spring. Parked at the Gulf station located at 8384 Colesville Road Silver Spring across from the Discovery building offers something unique in the area.

Brothers Rachan and Rocky Malhotra are offering three varieties of kati roll. Your filling of choice - chicken, potato, or Indian paneer cheese - is wrapped in flatbread, resulting in a sandwich with an exotic spin. Rachan said that the next closest place you can get this New Delhi specialty is New York City.

Rachan, who handles the customer service while his brother assembles sandwiches inside the cart, is a native of New Delhi who's been in the U.S. for eight years. Formerly a computer programmer, he then worked in
advertising. Now, he's happy to be outside and out from behind a desk, and enjoys chatting with customers as they wait for their orders.

Rachan has heard that some think it's not fair for trucks and carts, with their lower overhead costs, to compete with restaurants, but said that no one has expressed an objection.

"We haven't had anyone say anything," he said. "We're just trying to make a more eclectic mix in the food choices people have."

Customer Cassandra Berman, who said she wouldn't have come out to a sit-down restaurant for lunch today, said "It's enhancing the food scene." And, she suggests, "It could be helping the restaurants, by getting people interested in trying more Indian food."

The cart is open weekdays from 11: 00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and sandwiches are priced from $5.00 - $7.00.