ON the Ahmedabad-Bombay Road, which is National Highway No. 8, as your car arrives at an industrial town called Talasari, look out on the left for a sign that says �Dairyland�. Chances are, you might miss it. I almost did. So drive slowly and watch for a bypass from the highway that leads to Dairyland. It is the best place to stop for lunch on your return journey from Udvada or Daman. And, the last reminder that you went on a gourmet trail to coastal Gujarat nearby.

The lunch at Dairyland is Gujarati thali, though, very vegetarian, and enriched by some excellent and sumptuous dairy products like lassi and flavoured kulfis. Everything is made at inhouse at Dairyland.

The food is very fresh, very pure, and nothing like you will get on any highway in India. So, make a stop and have the thali. Drink a lassi after that. The meal will not only sustain you on your drive home, but, that night, you won�t need to have dinner!

The story goes that film star Rekha, who was driving down to Silvasa for a shoot many years ago, stopped at Dairyland. She not only had the thali, but followed it up with the Maharaja lassi. This is a tall, 400 ml glass full of regular sweet lassi but also mixed with mava, shrikhand, dry-fruits and kulfi. It is a meal by itself.

The Silvasa film unit complained to Dairyland later that for three days after her meal there, Rekha did not have anything to eat at all! And she was fired with the enthusiasm for nothing but work!

Urvaksh Naval Hoyvoy, my host at Dairyland, says that some of the Sikh truck-drivers who stop by Dairyland for their meal think nothing of having a thali and Maharaja lassi. �But it takes some getting used to,� he admitted.

It was his grandfather, Nariman Ardeshir Hoyvoy, who started the place in the 1960s. Initially it was just a milk parlour and stables for buffaloes that were in the transition stage of being bought and sold. �But motorists used to stop and have dairy products like lassi, chaas, kulfi, shrikhand and paneer. The lassi was very famous and the kulfis popular with everyone.�

Before Dairyland started its Gujarati thali, it was famous for its batatawadas. Urvaksh�s father, Naval Nariman Hoyvoy, who studied food and dairy technology, and who revolutionised the dairy business in India with ideas of pasteurisation and packaging, used to serve two batatawadas that four people could share.

�Batatawada and a glass of lassi was the standard meal on the highway,� Urvaksh said. The batatawadas are still popular, but the Gujarati thali is any day the bigger draw. It is cooked by two maharajs who are specialists in Gujarati food. They have been with Dairyland for almost 18 years. All the vegetables for the thali come from the nearby Talasari market and from the farm land itself. They grow brinjals, spinach, lady-fingers, white pumkins, squash, chillies. The onions and tomatoes are sourced elsewhere. Dairyland�s manager, Major Anil Thapa, and his wife Uma, run the place with comfort and ease. While he decides the day�s menu at the restaurant, she looks after the quality of the food, the hygiene of the kitchen, and the hospitality in the service.

The restaurant is set among among Dairyland�s gardens. It is lower than the highway, so while having your meal, you can see and hear the trucks whizzing by on the road above. It seats 60, and there is a small air-conditioned section for 15, plus a playground, and ample parking space. Dairyland opens at 7.30 a.m. for breakfast and service continues till 11 p.m. for dinner. The Gujarati thali apart, there is a regular a la carte menu from which you might order snacks, sandwiches, bhelpuri, South Indian food, specially-made Jain pakodas and bhajias and regular Punjabi meals of dal-chawal-sabzi-paratha.

No matter what kind of meal you have, you must end your experience at Dairyland with kulfi. There are always eight varieties, some of which are seasonal, because they are made out of fresh fruits grown at the farm or got from out. Malai, pista, kesar masala and chocolate are available year round. But ask for one or all of these fruity flavours when you visit Dairyland, if you are lucky, they will be served to you: Sitafal, mango, chickoo and strawberry.