As I walk along the road left slippery by the heavy rain, I wonder whether I would have the appetite to have some pazhamkanji in this weather. But I find that I am wrong as I get a taste of the ‘special pazhamkanji’ (so says the board) at Moopilan’s Kitchen.
It’s lunch time and customers are trooping in as Vijayakumari, who runs this no-frills place, is busy giving away parcels of pazhamkanji in containers. The space looks cramped with just 14 chairs. Before I sit down to have the gruel, Vijayakumari fills in with the details. “I used to serve home-cooked food to many places. But after a point I couldn’t carry it forward. I decided to open an eatery where I could serve something different from the usual fare. When I mentioned pazhamkanji, it was my son-in-law, Shyam, who egged me on to try it. It was he who named the place Moopilan’s Kitchen,” says Vijayakumari, a resident of Kaimanam.
Thanks to word-of-mouth publicity and the social media, Moopilan’s get customers from across the city. “Pazhamkanji has been a quintessential breakfast for many Malayalis. Each has it in different ways. I serve it the way I used to have it,” she says.
First things first – the gruel is served in clay bowls and side-dishes in small clay plates. The gruel is topped with generous helpings of mashed tapioca (cooked with turmeric and salt), thick curd and spicy mango pickle – in the same order. There is a burst of flavours in the mouth as I eat the mix of gruel, tapioca, curd and spicy pickle. That’s the fare for vegetarians like me.
If you are a non-vegetarian, you get fish curry and dried fish ( karuvadu ) fry and onion roast (thinly sliced onion sautéed with chilli and masala powder). I didn’t have bird’s eye chilli ( kanthari mulaku ) with the gruel, a customary way of eating it. Everything for Rs. 60. Now I know why within four months the shop has seen people making a beeline for the gruel.
Pazhamkanji, as we know, is left over rice soaked in salted water. It is true that many are put off by the smell from the fermented mix. “But you wouldn’t get that smell here because it is not left over rice. The rice is cooked on the previous evening. Once it cools, I mix a little curd in it. Next morning, I add pieces of onion, green chillies (kudamkalli), coriander leaves, crushed ginger and salt to the gruel,” she says.
The place is open from 11.30 a.m. on all days and there is gruel till the stock replenishes. “Now that the rain have started, I have cut down on the quantity I prepare. It usually gets over by 5 p.m.,” she says. In the evening, you get hot puttu and chicken pirattu, and thattudosas.
Moopilan’s Kitchen is on Bund Road, that is the road leading to Attukal Temple from Killippalam and is open on all days. Contact: 9995813711
