Of late I have been hearing people rave about aththo, a new and refreshing alternative to our usual idlis and dosas. In short time, it has become the craze of street-food lovers in the city. A customary Google search and some enquiries with friends led me to 'Matha Aththo Kadai', at the far end of Tirunagar where an entire neighbourhood named Burma Colony exists. Home to few hundred families, the colony is full of refugee settlers from Burma who were repatriated in the early 60’s.
A BITE OF BURMA: Street-side Aththo shops are catching up among foodies in the city
'Matha Aththo Kadai' is a small shack by the road at the entrance of the Burma Colony with just one wobbly table and four rickety chairs laid out under a thatched roof. From here 35-year-old Clara Rani and her husband dish out plates of Aththo and Mohinga to customers who throng the place, mostly for takeaways.
A BITE OF BURMA: Street-side Aththo shops are catching up among foodies in the city
In a big steel vessel, Rani tosses a handful of boiled noodles, throws in half-a-dozen ingredients including salt, chilli flakes, besan, tamarind extract and garlic oil and mixes them thoroughly with bare hands. She sprinkles a handful of finely chopped cabbage and onions over the mixture and inserts a plastic spoon into the mound. But before handing over the plate, she puts in the secret ingredient. It's the Bejo -- crispy round thattai -like snack made of rice flour that's crushed and added. “Aththo is nothing but a noodle salad that needs no cooking. Except the noodles that's boiled, the vegetables and spices go in raw,” says Rani. As I take a bite, I realise Aththo is indeed a medley of textures – the crunchy Bejo pieces, the soggy chompy noodles, the zing of salt and chilli and the tangy twist of tamarind – everything stands out.
A BITE OF BURMA: Street-side Aththo shops are catching up among foodies in the city
Rani's father was a refugee from Myanmar and he taught her the recipes. “We have been selling Aththo for a long time, but only to the people living in the colony. After my mother’s demise four months ago, I took over and set up the shop. Now people from far and wide are coming for aththo,” she says. As I listen to tales of repatriation and bits and pieces of Burmese history from Rani, she offers a bowl of plantain stem soup. A favourite among Burmese, the soup is an all-time comfort food, she says. Slender dices of plantain stem is boiled in water with a tadka of spices like pepper, cumin and coriander. A dash of garlic and ginger is added at the end to make it flavoursome.
A BITE OF BURMA: Street-side Aththo shops are catching up among foodies in the city
“Though Burmese cuisine has some commonality with Indian food in terms of the spices used, the method of cooking is quite different,” says R Ramesh Kumar, who has set up Thambi Aththo Kadai on LDC Road in North Madurai. “There's not much frying in oil, but a lot of steaming and boiling. Aththo for the Burmese is like the Dosa. In Burma, various forms of Aththo are available throughout the day at different places from street-side stalls to star hotels,” says Kumar whose grandfather V Guruvel taught him the recipes.
A BITE OF BURMA: Street-side Aththo shops are catching up among foodies in the city
“My thatha came from Burma and set up a shop serving aththo in Chennai. He taught me the other recipes also like Seijo, egg masala and Mohinga, which are slight variations with the same ingredients like noodles, lemon and the plantain stem soup.” “For example, Seijo comes with soy sauce and Mohinga has a dash of lemon squeeze in it. Egg masala is a whole boiled egg stuffed with ginger, garlic and spices.”
Ramesh who owns a shop in B.B. Colony at Vyasarpadi in Chennai opened Thambi Aththo Kadai just a month ago, to introduce Burmese cusine in Madurai. “Chennai has a lot more Burmese settlers and Aththo is a popular street food in the northern suburbs especially. The response in Madurai is welcoming and we plan to introduce soon more varieties like Kause and fried aththo, a hotter and spicier version.” “For us, Aththo is the lone faint reminder of our association with Burma and we take pride in holding on to the recipes.”
Both the shops are open from 7 pm to 11 pm. For more details, call Matha shop (8056403545); Thambi Aththo shop (9500508034)
