When its lunch or dinner time, a food lover passing through the Tirupati-Bengaluru national highway would be lured to stop for a while at ‘Araku Aroma Coffee,’ a roadside shop serving dishes of bamboo chicken, biryani and several flavours of coffee. One with romantic tastes can relish the dinner or sip coffee under moonlight.
Launched a month ago, ‘Araku Aroma Coffee’ by a Bengaluru-based entrepreneur S. Krishna Chaitanya Reddy alias Krish, the outlet has become a favourite den for about 100 foreign nationals from Africa and Middle East, studying at a nearby engineering college. Several tourists criss-crossing Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh and passing through this tri-State junction would not only show curiosity to watch the bamboo chicken and biryani preparation in complete Araku-style, but also taste the dishes, apart from a sip of the coffee, with beans procured and roasted from Araku valley.
Except for watching preparing the relishing the bamboo-hallow made dishes on TV or in films, an average Chittorean or a traveller from the southern parts would not have tasted them. Mr. Krish has been in the forefront to set up his first outlet in Chittoor district, with an eye to tap the tourism potential, throwing the snare of ‘Araku products’ at them, as and when Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu himself came with an announcement to promote bamboo-biryani and chicken as the premier dishes of the State on the lines of Hyderabadi biryani.
Speaking to The Hindu , Mr Krish said that having hailed from the Konaseema belt, he always loved Araku valley and its people since childhood. In a the last couple of years, he had set up as many as 10 outlets in New Jersey, serving Araku food products, to start with Telugu people and to spread to all other food lovers. “The patronage of the Chief Minister to promote tourism in Araku and to promote their culture to tap tourism potential has galvanised my entrepreneurial sense. Coming to Rayalaseema region, our first outlet is set up in Anantapur, and the second one in Chittoor town. Our units at Rajamahendravaram, Ravulapalem, Tanuku and Vijayawada are striving hard to promote Araku culture. Our outlets in Bengaluru are also doing fine,” he said.
No oil content
The food lovers, particularly from the middle age, are fast getting attracted to the Araku food products, as made in natural bamboo hallows (Bongu), the oil content is totally avoided, while the fat content from the chicken would get completely drained out, giving a healthy and natural dish to customers. “We have employed the native youth and experts in preparing bamboo dishes from Araku valley in our outlets across India and abroad,” Mr. Krish said, adding that he wanted to contribute 50% of the profits in the sale of coffee products to improve the quality of life among Scheduled Tribes of Araku valley.
“Working in coffee plantations and procuring bamboo in forests, they are highly vulnerable to snakebites, and the number of casualties remain alarming each year. The coffee belt from Mamidimilli to Araku through Rampachodavaram requires good education, and health for the locals. As they are supplying us fine coffee beans and bamboo sheaths, I feel the corporate social responsibility for them,” Mr Krish observed.
