Manapparai has hogged headlines when it comes to its crisp murukkus but Aranthangi may prove to be a worthy competitor. For, the municipal town in Pudukottai district has as many as 34 companies involved in the business of these deep-fried snacks, a south Indian staple with many regional variations and names that travel as far as the United States and the Gulf countries.
The local Chamber of Commerce lists ‘ murukku -making’ as a separate division, and visitors to the asbestos-roofed sheds of Karpaga’s Murukku Company can meet proprietor C. Subbiah, who also serves as vice-president of the Chamber, and the cottage industry’s representative there.
“We have been in this line for the past 31 years,” says the soft-spoken Subbiah, as he keeps a keen eye on the activities in the cooking and packing sections of the work area. As it emerges, murukku (twist in Tamil) is a blanket term that covers a variety of other sweet and savoury eats that are still made by hand and sold all over the state in vast quantities.
“We make adirasams, madakku paniarams and murukkus , and sell them through five bakeries here. At one stage, our murukkus were going up to Karaikal, Vedaranyam, Nagapattinam, Nagore and Thiruvarur but after many workers left, I’ve stuck to supplying within the town,” says Subbiah.
Defying the popularity of pre-packaged snack-foods, Aranthangi’s rice flour and jaggery-based nibbles have made their link to tradition their unique selling point. “Many of the Aranthangi natives who work in Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Malaysia and United States tend to buy our snacks to take back with them after vacations here,” says Subbiah. “Several people place large orders for marriages or religious rites.”
Subbiah says he has started adapting recipes and production to suit modern health concerns.
After frying, all the products at Karpaga’s are put through a centrifugal device that drains off the excess oil, and prolongs its shelf life by up to three weeks. “This also makes the murukku lighter on the stomach,” claims Subbiah.
Personal touch
Large cloth-lidded brass cauldrons containing at least two months’ worth of adirasam dough are lined up against the wall of Sri Raja’s Murukku, a company that operates on a ‘no-door’ policy. “My shop has no door, because customers can walk in at any time, buying for Rs.5 or Rs.5000,” says Raja, the jeans-clad proprietor of the 17-year-old business.
Raja’s menu offers a selection of murukkus (flavoured with garlic, green gram, roasted gram, rice flour and coconut milk) and adirasams made of jaggery and refined sugar.
All the mixes are prepared personally by Raja “because a mistake could spoil everything in a minute,” he says.
For a man who started out selling re-packaged savoury ‘mixture’ on buses for Re.1, and spent around six years learning the ropes before setting out on his own in the murukku business, Raja wears his prosperity lightly. “Even though tastes are changing, we are still seeing a steady demand for native snacks,” he says.
“My products are costlier, because I use expensive ingredients. We supply to stores in Pudukottai and Tiruchi regularly.”
His last order was worth Rs.40,000 for a marriage in Tiruchi, where he supplied 2000 each of murukkus and adirasams in December 2014. He also undertakes orders for travellers going abroad, and offers diet-friendly options.
