India is pretty much a mystery to me. I believe it is for most Americans.

India is huge. It has something like 1.1 billion people. It’s the world’s largest democracy. But India and the U.S. … not much interaction, and never has been. No wars. No colonial history. No proximity. Not much trade. Not even many immigrants, from India, to the land of immigrants, the U.S.

What I don’t know about India is … extensive. Some of that ignorance is being chipped away, while in the UAE, because the single largest population bloc in the country are expatriates from India. Yes,  the country has more of them than the indigenous Arabs. Something like 1.9 million Indians live in a country of about 7 million people, and the Indian cultural presence is significant. Especially in some of the older neighborhoods of Abu Dhabi.

Tonight, we decided to take another tentative step into the Indian experience … at a popular vegetarian restaurant in the heavily Indian neighborhood of Al Markaziyah.

What did I learn?

For starters, Indian menus are too big and, for the average American, impossible to grasp. That may not be the case at all 24 Indian restaurants in Abu Dhabi, but it seems to be fairly typical.

Consider: I’m looking at the menu from Chhappan Bhog (the restaurant’s name),  and here are some of the offerings:

Gobi. Mooli. Methi.

Wada Pav. Bhel Puri. Bhajia Chaat.

Dhai Idli. Rawa Dosa. Uppma.

Did you get all that? Exactly! You can be a semi-bold lower-level American foodie and not have the slightest idea what any of that is. Until you have a grasp of vegetable names in Hindi, anyway. And even then, you’re not sure how those vegetables are being prepared.

We had a bit of help ordering. Thank goodness. We work with a woman of Indian origin who is a big fan of the place and had some recommendations. Get the Wada Pav, she said. She also suggested the Paneer Dosa, if I recall correctly.

The first is a sort of mashed-potato sandwich. With the spuds stuffed between a sweet-tasting bun. (Think KFC’s dinner rolls, except bigger.)

The second is a large, crepe-like confection with a paste of spinach and cheese and eggs (we think) and onions inside.

We were there with a friend who lives nearby, so we decided to sample two more dishes, and the waiter suggested the Pudina and Paneer and the Punjabi Thali.

The first of his suggestions is a round flat bread with, again, a thin interior of (in this case) spinach and cheese. His second was a fairly elaborate collection of eight dipping bowls, each containing a specific concoction, surrounding a bed of white rice. Sort of a sampler of dips, that is. Figuring out what was what (“lentils, right? cauliflower, I think; pickled radishes, maybe? coconut curry,” etc.) was a big part of this assortment.

It was … interesting. Perhaps a little oniony, for me. (They were everywhere.) And a bit spicy, especially some of the dips in the Punjabi Thali.

The Wada Pav was the most interesting selection we made. Yes, a mashed-potato sandwich. Pretty good, and enormously cheap, at 4.5 dirhams — about $1.20. Apparently, Wada Pav is sold by street vendors in many parts of India. (Abu Dhabi doesn’t allow street vendors.) Hugely popular. Sort of the hamburger of the menu, in terms of ubiquity.

What I liked best … was the Paneer Dosa. The crepe was nicely done, and the interior mix of cheese, spinach and egg reminded me a bit of (well, sure) spinach quiche.  I also liked the Pudina and Paneer, which contained almost the same ingredients in a more bready container.

I also ordered a chocolate milk shake, which had little or no ice cream in it, but was milky and chocolate-y and shaken, and you can never go wrong there.

What was most compelling about all this was ordering an assortment of items two of us (Leah being the exception) had never, ever tasted. A leap into the unknown, pretty much.

Ultimately, you figure 1.1 billion Indians can’t be wrong; this stuff has to be tasty. But still … I’m not always that brave.

The whole meal was astonishingly inexpensive. Four courses (one of which, the Punjabi Thali, was the priciest item on the menu), a chocolate milk shake, a lime soda and a two-liter bottle of water … for 53 dirhams (about $14).

The point of the restaurant is to create some appealing dishes without using meat. Many Hindus are vegetarians.

Off of what we had tonight, I would find the vegan path a difficult one. More power to those of you who can pull it off, but what I had wasn’t ultra-vegan (not with cheese and eggs) and I don’t think I could do even that, 24/365.

I prefer my Indian with meat in sauces. Like the lamb kurma or the chicken masala. I don’t eat much beef at all, anymore (it just happened), and pork is illegal here (Muslim country, remember) outside of tourist hotels. So I’m pretty much down to poultry and lamb, while here, and that’s working out fine.

But I believe I would prefer to hang on to that much of the carnivorous side of life.

I would go back to Chhappan Bhog, but I doubt I will make a habit of it. Only so many ways you can dress us/spice up vegetables, and I’m fairly sure I would tire of the effort long before I figured out what was what on the menu.

But another cultural experience on the dance card. Including the mashed-potato sandwich.