10/18/2025
After over 12 years in business, we are closing. And for those of you to choose to read on, THANK YOU.
I originally opened Tiffin Asha twelve years ago because it was my hope and wish to bring Portland this beautiful and multifaceted cuisine. That’s all. I loved the food and I wanted to cook it. As my wife has said to many of you, “She first fell for the South Indian and then the South Indian cuisine.” To our customers that came to know us for our condiments in the last few years, the history of our business goes back to a food cart in May of 2013 on NE Alberta & NE 13th Ave, Portland Oregon…
For my family, Tiffin Asha came to stand for so much more. It became an identity, something to believe in and stand strong by -no matter what the challenges.
One of the first times I met Sheila she asked me, “Have you heard of dosa?” “Noooo,” I said, and I curiously replied, “What is it?”She continued to describe dosa, “Kind of like... an Indian crepe.” “Oh, really? What kind of flour do you make it with?” I asked, wanting to know more. “No flour, just lentils and rice,” she said, with some indifference.
She continued to describe dosa, becoming more and more animated as she talked about the taste and texture and all the delicious sounding condiments you could eat it with. She said her mom would always make dosa for her when she’d go back home to visit and how she’d usually serve it with an onion soup called sambar, which she explained you’d dip dosa into before gobbling it up! She even went as far as to explain how her mom would cut the onions for the sambar. Using her finger, she showed me the size and width of the onions, “You know, like this long, and this thick,” as she pointed to her index finger using it like it was a ruler. “Perfect bite size pieces that you can easily scoop up with dosa!” she exclaimed.
Isn’t it funny how one small action can set you on a path?
Maybe a part of you believes in a version of destiny–where it was meant to be, and before it elusively slips away forever–you decide to grab it. Well, I guess you could you can say I grabbed it, and with it, broke open a flood gate of curiosities which led to hours and years of experimentations that grew into a business which became my idenity– our love story and our tribute to South Indian Cuisine.
She often likes to recall this story when telling people about my journey to the cuisine by saying, “How else was I going to impress a chef? And with a bit of a shrug, says, “So I told her about the food I grew up eating.”
Thank you to all of you who supported us over the years. It has been an amazing journey and I’m excited to see what’s up next. 💓
PS: A couple of years back I made a 10 year anniversary video on our website. It shows the story more visually:) There is a link to it in our bio.
