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Mmmm... there's variety

Exotic spices from across the country and traditional namkeens, you get them all at Simply Mmmm

PHOTO: K. PICHUMANI

FOOD FROM ALL OVER At Simply Mmmm

They wandered alertly through Mumbai's crowded streets. They thoroughly investigated Delhi. They scouted around Gujarat. They explored Indore. And went on to Benares. And then, they did it all over again.

Suman and her father Ramesh Gandhi were on a quest. Their aim was to source the best speciality foods from all over the country — chaat masalas from Mumbai, spicy stuffed chilli pickle from Delhi, flaky kakras from Gujarat, crisp moong jor from Rajasthan — and stock it at their Anna Nagar store, `Simply Mmmm.'

"Because, otherwise, you just don't get what you want," says Ramesh, explaining why Chennai needs a speciality food store of this sort. As people from all over the country move into a city, it's inevitable that they will eventually begin to hunger for a taste of home. And since every city has its own distinctive cuisine — with all the associated tastes and smells — duplication is next to impossible. A vada pav in Chennai, for instance, will never taste as good as one bought on a Mumbai street, sizzling golden, draped in a stinging sauce and wrapped in buttery, spongy pav bread. The same way, a glistening ghee roast accompanied by filter coffee always tastes best in this city, to true blue Chennai-ites.

"When we moved here 15 years ago, my dad found it difficult to adjust... " says Suman, adding that although all of them now prefer South Indian food, they still crave the distinctive Mumbai snacks. "In Mumbai, people snack all the time," Ramesh smiles.

"When I go there, I tell people at home not to cook, so that I can eat all my meals on the road: hot samosas, tangy sandwiches, batata vada, pani puri... There's so much at every step."

"Every time my aunt visited Chennai, I'd ask her to bring me sukhi kachoris," says Suman, opening a jar crammed with them and holding out the aromatic snack.

"She'd bring a kilo, which would last 15 days, then I would have to wait for six months for the next stock!" Suman points at the other interesting items stacked up on the shelves. The Gujarati namkeens are probably the most fascinating: sweet and salty pava chevda, colourful mixtures, a bewildering collection of sevs and the delicious bhakarvadi.

"The idea is to overwhelm the buyer with variety, not volume," says Ramesh, as Suman continues the tour of her intriguing shop, past a shelf crammed with about 70 varieties of masalas from Mumbai and Delhi, for everything from lassi to parathas, fruit chaat and `onion salad.' "They even have a sandwich masala," says Suman, "So you can sprinkle it on top of your filling and get that authentic Mumbai taste."

Then there are the pickles: gajjar chilli, kerda pickle, sweet and hot mango chutney. They also stock exotic varieties such as the `green pepper in brine'. Syrups, organic food, a bakery section, fine cheeses from around the world, Chinese sauces from Kolkata's famed Chinese quarter `Tangra'... Simply Mmmm is like a market that represents the entire country. With parking.

"There's a lady who came here on the first day, and said `Oh, I can get all this in Sowcarpet," laughs Suman. "She came back two days later, pulled out a shopping basket and said, "Thank God I don't have to go all the way there now!"

SHONALI MUTHALALY

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