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The `thattukada' wave
Cheap and tasty.
WE SHOULD not be taken aback when the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the highest authority on the English language, lists `thattukada' among its new entries in the near future. So popular and pervasive has this word, as well as the concept, become that it even features in the famed Dubai Shopping Festival.
Even though Kerala has nothing much to claim in the development of fast food concept, thattukada remains a desi version of this foreign culinary fad.
Thattukadas, particularly in Kochi city, have become part of its night life. They provide the city a face, an identity, and a character too, apart from letting the concept gain popularity even in the Gulf. Alex Jacob's Thattukada at the Palm Beach Rotana Inn in Dubai used to be a cynosure when it was launched some time ago. But no longer. Now it is part of the Malayali life there, as it is in this part of the world.
Maybe a bloke from northern Kerala would fail to understand what exactly a thattukada is.
But certainly none in the South-Central part of the State, particularly Kochi. Begun in the mid-80's as a cheaper and quicker alternative to the restaurant food, targetting the ordinary migrant population of the city, thattukadas _ or thattus as they are called _ have now become an alternative eating habit wielding substantial influence in the lives of the rich and the poor alike.
If it was one Vijayan, a postgraduate, who put up the first thattukada at Lissy Junction in the city in 1984, it was the Pai Brothers who popularised the concept. Little wonder no other thattu dosa can beat the Pais' even today _ at least in popularity.
While the early thattukadas, as that of Vijayan and Pai, focused on quality dosas, the latter ones introduced variety and spice. Says Shafik Abdulkhader, a young lawyer from the city: ``Gone are the soft and mouthwatering dosas provided by Vijayan for 10 paise apiece. Those dosas were... wow.''
However, like many of his friends from other professions, Shafeek continues to relish the fast food provided by thattukadas at night as an alternative. He says he finds it enjoyable every often, particularly when work prolongs late into night. So does Jijo Job, a student staying at a city hostel, T. Ramachandran, a sales representative, and Mohamed Yasin, a young computer engineer.
The number of families depending on thattukadas, particularly on weekends, is on the rise as is the trend to enjoy a day out on a holiday.
Realising this change of habit among the rich, some thattukadas have emerged with star symbols, giving a little more thrust on hygiene.
The thattukadas at Padma Junction on MG Road are examples.
Some thattukadas on the road sides, like the ones on the highway at Vyttila Junction, raise concerns of hygiene, in spite of offering a wide variety of dishes, including chicken, beef, fish, porotta, tapioca, dosa, idli, appam, idiyappom, etc.
Running a thattukada is certainly a lucrative business.
If one can spare the night and personnel.
By Abdul Latheef Naha
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Life
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
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