Easily accessible, fast food, great rates and hot eats… foodies in the city do love their food on the go. Competing with the ubiquitous thattukadas are food trucks that have found a parking space in the culinary scene of the city. Students, office-goers and families make a pit stop at these food trucks for a quick bite that is usually spicy and high on oil.
Most of the food trucks open shop in the evenings, with cooks briskly setting up aluminium tables to slap and knead the dough for the porottas that are sold in no time once sales begin. Clouds of mouth-watering flavours arise from these mobile eateries as the cooking begins in earnest. In fact, it is the aroma of masala that many can’t resist. Fiery meat dishes are the most popular and vegetarian curries tag along merely to give some variety to the menu that almost all the patrons are familiar with.
Shabu is one of the few who can actually trace the city’s connect with these mobile counters, since he used to work at Hot Stuff, arguably the first such food truck in the city. “I was in my early teens when Hot Stuff used to do business near the Secretariat. I was paid Rs. 20 per day [now his staff gets Rs. 700 to 750]. It was run by a non-resident Malayali who later sold it. After puttering along under different owners, it was stopped,” explains Shabu.
Another veteran in the field is Sabeer S. M., who runs Bismillah (earlier known as City Chef), parked near Sree Mulam Club, Vazhuthacaud. “Our brand must be some 25 years old. Our USP is the home made masalas that are used to prepare chicken and beef dishes,” says Sabeer.
Alif Mahal, a food truck at Vellayamabalam, has completed over 14 years now. Both Alif and Irani, another popular food truck at Vellayambalam, have a devout following among the youngsters in the city. The vans don’t have flashy kitchens, as most of the dishes are prepared at their respective homes/hotels and brought for sale. “We have live counters only for porotta, chappathi, dosa, omelettes and chicken fry. The rest is prepared at home,” says Irani Abbas, owner and head chef of Irani food truck, that has been functioning at the same spot for over 22 years.
Food trucks can now be found in many places in the city, all along the Vellayambalam-Vazhuthacaud stretch, near the All India Radio, Statue, Pattom and Thampanoor, for example.
For the city with its nostalgic connect to the thattukadas and their smoky flavours, these mobile food counters are the new-age thattukadas. In the last few years these customised vans have raced ahead in dishing up ethnic vegetarian and non-vegetarian treats for foodies.
Piping hot chicken and beef delicacies are sold with porottas and chappathis, soft, plump dosas are accompanied by chutney and sambar or neatly folded omelettes. Nowadays, the menu has been enlarged to add steaming hot puttu and fluffy idiappam, oratti, the ever-popular kappa (tapioca)–fish curry, fish fry… t’s truly a smorgasbord of flavours.
Specialising in indigenous dishes are newcomers like Keerthi and Natturuchi, both of which are parked at Vazhuthacaud in the evenings. “We sell at least 60 to 70 parcels daily. One of the reasons for the increase in business is the presence of new companies and multi-storeyed residential buildings, especially on the Vazhuthacaud-Kuravankonam stretch,” says Ramaputhran who owns Keerthi and its branch at Statue, along with his partner, Bency.
Natturuchi serves seafood: fish fry, fish curry, and meen pollichathu.
That is in addition to duck roast and nadan kozhi pirattu. “When I opened this place I wanted to be different from others. Our puttu – nadan kozhi pirattu combo is perhaps the most popular. All the dishes are prepared at home by my wife, Sindhu, and I,” says Mani R., who operates the outlet. He plans to launch a “hi-tech mobile food van” next month at Kowdiar Junction, which he says “will be a first-of-its-kind experience for the city.”
These counters are busy right from the time they open, mostly after 7.30 p.m. Some like Natturuchi and Keerthi start functioning even earlier in the evening. The Police Department has mandated that they shut shop at 11 p.m. The owners crib that the 11 p.m. deadline has affected their business.
“It is around that time that many return home from railway stations or cinemas,” say Sabeer and Abbas.
Whatever the speed-breakers, the food truck owners agree that they are on the right taste track.
