If you were to drive far enough along the 10 East, toward the edges of the Los Angeles sprawl, eventually you would reach Upland. It's an area perhaps best known for the Claremont Colleges, where 19-year-olds are aggressively being taught to interpret Kant, but it's also where you'll find Ashirwad the Blessings, a Gujarati restaurant that specializes in the Indian snack foods called chaat. There's no meat in sight. In addition to the various snack foods — crackers garnished with potato and spices, crunchy puffed dough layered with yogurt, samosas bathed in spicy gravy and chickpeas — almost everyone here gets thali, a kind of pre-assembled Gujarati meal plate, with enough different flavors to keep you occupied for several visits. As you spoon various curries and chutneys onto the slab of flatbread called roti, it will occur to you, maybe for the first time, that renouncing meat would not be particularly difficult. —James Gordon

583 E. Foothill Blvd., Ste. 10, Upland, 91786. (909) 608-1313, tiffinsbyashirwad.com.

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