As one walked into the Kerala House canteen post the one-day interruption in the sale of ‘beef fry and beef curry’, the popularity of the buffalo meat dishes only seemed to have soared post the controversy.
Sudhish, attending the heavy footfall of customers who queued up at the token counter he was handling, soon found himself with the unpleasant task of informing them that the two dishes – the driving factor for the visit of most – had been sold out. All this, barely 45 minutes after the lunchtime started.
Whether the smile on his face was an outcome of the improved sales (it takes over two hours on other days to sell that much) or an attempt to make the disappointed customer at the other end feel better, was a secret he kept to himself when probed.
And those who cared to notice, the white board behind him with the two dishes struck off conveyed the message before he could. It was the same board where the dishes appeared by their old names till Monday when an alleged police “raid” forced them to take the word “beef” written in Malyalam off it. Two days later the names had been changed to Meat Fry and Meat Curry and the font was English.
And those who managed to get a taste the popular dishes seemed pleased with their return on the menu and their plates. Such was the impact generated by the developments of the past two days that people in groups had started coming
Predictably, however, conversations on most tables were not confined to food. Devouring on “meat” as well as dishes such as chicken roast, fish curry, fish fry and chicken biriyani, they discussed the socio-political situation in the country in the light of the current incident as well as Dadri lynching.
This journalist was a part of one such conversation at the table he shared with Thiruvananthapuram residents Anita and her father Venu, who are in the Capital for her Combined Medical Services interview as well as Danny Babu, a young UPSC aspirant from Ernakulam.
“Who gets to decide what is a sin and what is not? If I am respecting someone else’s food habits, they should do the same for me. Eating beef is integral to our culture and for me it is no different from the Aviyal you see here,” she said pointing towards the flavourful coconut based mixed vegetable dish on the plate.
Her views were well supported by her father and Danny who was, surprisingly, more happy than disappointed that the buffalo meat dishes he had come to eat, were sold out. “It sends a message to all those who spread hate and intolerance,” he said.
Kerala House officials said that on any working day 15 kilogram of buffalo meat is procured and is divided into two equal halves to be served at lunch and dinner. However, anticipating the increased demand, they decided to cook 10 kg for lunch on Wednesday.
But the sales volume proved their estimation slightly wrong. A second batch had to be prepared when a group of CPIM leaders showed up, close to the closing time.