By the time we make it to the counter at the back of the house, there is the alluring smell of fried fish, rooms packed with hungry eyes awaiting second helpings, and waiters darting about with pails of curry. Sujitha Rajeevan mans the counter, billing customers and packing takeaways as more patrons trickle in every few minutes. At a little past one, ‘Shaap Kada’, as the eatery is commonly known around Enchakkal Bypass, is packed to the rafters. “That’s how it has always been known. We never had a formal name per say,” she says, referring to the restaurant’s former avatar. The daily afternoon commotion easily beats the one that Sujitha was used to — that of a newsroom.
As a reporter for Siraj, a Malayalam daily, the 34-year-old covered beats ranging from corporation to women’s issues in and around the city. With six years at the paper, Sujitha was living her dream. But last October, after her father, Anilan, passed away, she found herself pushed to a corner. Her grieving mother, Radha, was finding the lunch hour rush challenging to handle even with her brother Sudheer around. It was a tough call but one that had to be made.
Sujitha Rajeevan
Sujitha is at the restaurant by 6 am every day, along with her mother and four other women who prep and cook the numerous Kerala shaap delicacies that have made the family restaurant popular. “My father used to run it as a toddy shop with his friends. But when the court order was passed banning liquor stores along the NH, he turned it into a restaurant, retaining the menu but without the toddy,” Sujitha says.
The move did not affect business as there were plenty of takers for the restaurant’s specialities. Apart from standard shaap fare such as kappa and thala (fish head) curry, other specials include perattu versions of pork and chicken, not to mention four choices of fish fry — sardine, anchovy, tilapia, horse mackerel, still more seafood such as mussels and squid apart from the mackerel curry that accompanies the regular lunch thaali of boiled rice, sambar , avial , pulissery , upperi , pickle and most importantly, Radha’s famous chammanthi , a dry mix of coconut, fish and onions. “The recipe is a secret,” Sujitha says with a smile. “Our dishes were reviewed on a popular TV show but we refused to divulge the ingredients for the chammanthi .”
Radha stands amidst the swirl of activity, bright, smiling and alert, her caftan hitched up a few inches to keep pace as she passes on orders to her staff. “She’s better now, compared to those initial months,” Sujitha says, adding that her husband, Rajeev, an army man, helps her run the restaurant when he is in town on leave. The couple’s 10-year-old daughter, Nakshatra, counts the change for a customer as her mother refills the counter.
“There are days when I bring her to the restaurant with her school books. Otherwise I won’t be able to keep an eye on her,” says Sujitha.
A dish at Naadan thattu kada
The restaurant becomes a thattu kada at night, mainly run by her brother, with Kerala paratha and dosas made on the spot. “I chip in if we are short of staff,” she says. Sujitha’s new job does not entitle her to a weekly off. Occasionally, when the weekday lunchtimes have been particularly taxing for days at a stretch, she finds herself longing for a break. “My old job didn’t require standing as much. But I am enjoying this new role now. No complaints. I miss dropping by Press Club though. My former colleagues visit often,” she says.
The restaurant functions out of an old house, the walls screaming yellow and purple paint with tables and chairs in all the rooms. Families are directed to a room close to the counter. Sundays see more takeaways than walk-in customers.
The thaali, mackerel curry included, is priced at Rs. 70. Sujitha plans to have kingfish thala curry on the menu soon apart from tuna. “Amma’s ayila pollichathu (steamed mackerel) is also a hit here,” she says before making a quick dash to the counter where a queue has begun to form. Contact: 9846093668
