Careful posting pictures of things you take around with you in public comrade, the badges on that bag are very recognisable

hope you enjoyed your dinner!

Chana Masala is super tasty and cozy and filling; I highly recommend learning how to make a batch!

Here's the recipe I started with: https://youtu.be/iKMI1xkU_oo

It's mostly canned stuff and some basic spices, and once you've got the basics down it's a fundamental recipe that can be endlessly tweaked to your personal taste

LEARN TO MAKE CHANA MASALA

Here are two recipes for channa masala that I can attest to:

https://www.spiceupthecurry.com/chole/

And for a more Anglo-friendly version:

https://smittenkitchen.com/2010/02/chana-masala/

You really can't substitute amchur for anything else, except for similarly exotic ingredients like maybe sumac, with the expectation of getting the same end result so I'd recommend going to the effort of hunting it down.

Most of North Indian cuisine that you would be familiar with is just variations on the exact same method so if you watch a few cooking tutorials you'll get the idea of how it's done and you'll be able to expand to a whole lot of dishes from that point on. It's a lot like stir frying - there's the basic techniques used and the order that ingredients get cooked in but really the only thing that changes is quantities and in the ingredients themselves (e.g. snake beans vs lotus root); channa masala is one simple step away from something like rajma masala - the technique is identical, you are just using a different bean and the quantity of spices is slightly different.

Sounds like a great night! Love indian food, there's a nepali place around here i really like that will do thalis on takeout orders too, it's the best

now i want chana masala