Salem Ravichandran Tiffin House
Venkatachalam Road, RS Puram
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The steamer hisses and Nataraj rushes to lift the lids off and scoop out piping hot idlis. As if on cue, bikes and cars pull in. The customers wait patiently for the star of the evening; the thattai idli.
Unlike the regular idli, the thattai idlis are soft at the centre and bigger in radius. It costs Rs. 35 per plate.
There are other avatars of the idli too – fried idlis, podi idlis and sambar idlis.
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Two brothers, Salem Ravichandran and D. Sudhakar run the outlet. The home branch in Salem has been serving traditional Salem idlis for 35 years. The thattai idlis in Coimbatore are also made in the authentic style, says Keerthivasan, who manages the shop. “We ferment the batter for a day so that the idlis come out soft.”
Ravichandran and Sudhakar explored the culture and food taste of the locality before they opened the branch in Coimbatore five years ago. They found out that there were many Jain residents here. So the sambar and chutney are made without onions and garlic. This has won them many fans. “There is a recipe that ensures the sambar and chutney taste delicious even without onions and garlic. But, that’s our secret. I cannot reveal it, can I?” smiles Keerthivasan.
Paatti Amma Tiffin Stall
Road parallel to Brookefields Mall, near Senthil Hospital
Time: 6.30 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Seventy-three-year old Jeevarathnam greets you as you enter Paatti Amma Tiffin Stall.
Dressed in a green podavai, with jasmine in her hair, she smiles warmly at you and serves her famous soft, fluffy idlis.
It all began as a small petti kadai, 30 years ago, she recalls. “There were no gas stoves. All I had were wooden chuhlas. I did not even have a grinder. I had to make the batter with my hands.”
The employees of the Brookbond Tea Factory were her customers.
Those days, there were many trees there and the road was almost deserted.
Today, the area mills with people and shops. There are gas stoves, and Jeevarathnam’s son Muthu and daughter Chithra supervise the business.
As she has some competition now, she has added dosas, sevai and appams to her menu of idlis.
The shop wakes up after six in the evening. Mostly the customers are part time workers and college students.
How does one describe Paatti amma’s idlis? Jeevarathnam says it is not rocket science. “All you need is the right measure. One cup of rice and one-and-a-half cup of urud dal.You follow this rule and you get idlis as soft as jasmine!”
Idli Kadai
West Bashyakarlu Road
Time: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Even those kids who pull a face when they see idlis for breakfast, love this place! That’s because the idli gets a modern twist here. The finger idlis (similar to chicken 65), is finger licking good. And the idli Manchurian prepared with Chinese sauces is addictive. Then there are the melt-in-the-mouth butter idli and dahi idli chat!
The owners Jaykumar and Kumari Jaykumar wanted to reinvent the idli. “It is a safe dish, even recommended by doctors. There is no oil; it is steamed. Idli is one dish that can never go wrong,” says Jaykumar.
The shop also sells paniyaram and even pani puris.
In fact, the idea of dahi idli chat was born in the imagination of Sohan, their panipuriwallah, from Bihar. “He overheard us talking about dahi idli and remarked that he can cook up a chaat version.”
People also queue up for their wheat rava and podi idlis, says Kumari Jaykumar. “They even ask me if we can sell them podi packets separately. We make the podis at home and they are not spicy as the ones you find in other restaurants. We ensure that people get a homely taste here.
We try to pass on the recipes we learnt from my grandmothers to the three chefs working for us. ”
The chutneys and gravies are equally sought after! You are served eight different side dips varieties such as sambar, tomato brinjal, garlic gravy and dal, mint, mango, tomato-onion and coconut chutney.
The idli dishes are priced between Rs. 12 and Rs. 70. “We wanted to start an eatery that was somewhere between the high end restaurant kind and the thattu kadai type. Our main intention is to offer families a comfortable ambience,” says Jaykumar.