You’ve patiently stood in line at Kayani bakery for freshly-baked, lemon-scented Shrewsbury biscuits in Pune. You dream about the dark, heavy plum cake from Flury’s in Kolkata. You stuff almond-studded panjiri laddoos from Evergreen into your suitcase every time you’re in Delhi.
Over the years, certain foods have become inextricably linked to their cities of origin. “Whenever we travel, we buy specific foods from specific places to bring home for our family, friends and colleagues,” says Ashish Nichani, founder of Place Of Origin ( >placeoforigin.in ).
After years of working as a banker, he realised there was a gap in the online market, which no one had addressed. You can go online right now and order anything from a skipping rope to a television. But, if you’re in Chennai craving a box of Theobroma brownies from Mumbai, there’s nothing you can do about it. Well, other than write a pleading Facebook post perhaps, in the hope that a Mumbai friend will bring it to you.
“Every time I travelled, people asked me to bring them chips, kakra and pickles from all over the country,” says Ashish. Finally, he and a colleague, Sudarsan Metla, decided to make a business out of it. “A friend was conducting a wedding in Mumbai. He wanted this particular sweet called Dhamaka — made with rose petals, raisins and pistachios — from Evergreen in Delhi. He wanted to give them out with the wedding invitations. That’s what convinced us finally: people want special food, and they’re willing to pay for it,” says Ashish.
They launched as a Facebook page last November, just in time for Diwali. “We asked people what they wanted, and they came up with a list of about a 100 places,” he states, adding that they finally tied up with one dozen vendors, to begin with. “We realised that people were also tired of receiving sweets and dried fruits for Diwali, so we also started looking for unique things to gift, ranging from tea to pickles.”
The site made its official debut less than two months ago. “Today, we service people from Guntur who want Auroville chocolate. We get orders from Panipat for halwa from Jammu. South Indians in Thane use our site to order pickles from Chennai.” Although this is categorised as a gourmet food site, its founders say they don’t see it as niche. “It’s about marketing to the right set of people. But it’s not niche, simply because everyone likes to indulge in their favourite foods. Besides, it’s also practical. Why compromise on packaged spices, for example, when I can get you pepper direct from the plantation, and send it straight to your house,” says Ashish.
Sites such as this also play a curatorial role. “There are people who want traditional food. But there are also those who want to discover new age stuff. Everybody is a closet foodie. And our customers are our greatest strength because we get so much information from them.” Their next step is to work with home cooks in every city. “That’s another huge untapped market.”
Over the last couple of years, there has been a rash of similar sites launching. For example, Flavours Of My City ( >flavorsofmycity.com) identifies small stores in each city and sources products from them. Their collection is small but eclectic: bebinca from Goa, chocolate macaroons from Kerala and urad dal ladoos from Hyderabad.
Meanwhile in Chennai, Native's Special ( >nativespecial.com ), started by brothers V. Baskaran and Parthiban in 2012, has been doing extremely well, despite minimal marketing and a rather basic website. “When my brother was working in USA as a software engineer, he saw how excited people would get about simple signature foods there,” says Baskaran, discussing how the company began. “He thought such simple products there are marketed aggressively, while in our state, we ignore our own sweets, even though they are of such great quality.” They began with just six products, including Manapparai Murukku, Thoothukudi macaroons and kovilpatti kadalai. “We started with these because we grew up on them,” he says.
“Initially, we had very few customers,” says Baskaran. “For six months, we got barely 10 to 15 orders.” However, now he says they get about 10,000 orders a month, mostly from Tamil Nadu, Bangalore and Chennai. They stock a total of 70 products. “We find the ones that are the most special and then list them.” This includes Tirunelveli halwa from the original ‘Iruttu Kadai Halwa’ shop, which once operated only in candlelight. They have small vadais made from Indian Plums (local name: Elanthai Pazham) from Southern Tamil Nadu. And Palkova from Srivilliputhur, which is 60 kms south of Madurai.
