DARE - Because Entrepreneurs Do

In my previous post, I had mentioned Porotta and fried Chicken. Fried chicken to the Malayalee (as the Keralite prefers to be called, after the mother tongue) is what Tandaoori chicken is to the Punjabi. the method of preparation is similar, but for the final step. While the Punjabi bakes the chicken in a tandoor, a clay oven, The Malayalee fries it in oil. And Porotta is not the Paratta you get in North India. Porotta is made out of a dough made of maida, oil and the white of eggs, coiled and flattened to look like an Uttappam (made famous by the many Udupi restaurants all over the country). This is then cooked by heating on a tawa smeared with oil, much like an Uttappam is. Finally, the hot porottas are gathered together and beaten by hand to loosen up the coils. Depending on who makes the porotta and where, they could be as soft as candy or as hard as leather (No, I am not joking) and it could come in various sizes and thickness.

Come evening and an entire cottage industry springs up along road sides across the length and breadth of the state, with makeshift tables becoming shops (called thattukada - literally table top shop - making and selling fried chicken and porotta. And giving them competition are the regular hotels and restaurants, albeit with a twist. Maybe to get the aroma of frying chicken out, maybe to make it more visible, these regular restaurants get their stoves out from their kitchens by evening and place them out in front, right next to the entrance and start dishing out the states favourite dinner dish. So, in a way, it is more of a level playing field for both makeshift "thattukada" and etablished hotel, than one would imagine.

If you happen to take a train ride across the state, you will get a different version of this combination. You will get packed porotta and egg curry at the platforms.

Coming back, these thattukads - the dusk to midnight hotels - do not limit themselves to just porotta and chicken fry. In the true spirit of entrepreneurship and diversification, they keep adding to their portfolio. Thus, you can expect to get Dosa (more like Uttappam than masala dosa), chappati, idli, tea, egg omlet etc. at these shops. Typically, the batter and the other material including the marinated chicken pieces are prepared at home during the day and transported to the venue of the makeshift shops by evening. And by dusk, they are busy dishing out the hot stuff!

Actually, the thattukada is not a recent phenomenon nor did they start off with chicken fry. They started off with dosa and egg omlette, if my information is right, or possibly some thing else. The transition to chicken fry and Porotta is more recent, at least in the southern half of the state.

No body has a number on the number of thattuada hotels in the state. Some of them just seem to whiter away after some time and new ones repalce them all the time.

And in a state where there is a trade union for anything and every thing, I would not be surprised if the thattukda owners and the thattukada employees have their respective unions. But I have not heard of a strike (or hartal, which is the new word they use after the state high court banned strikes called bandhs) by these unions. Possibly the urge of entrepreneurship is much more stronger, or given that this is Kerala we are talking about, I could simply be wrong!

PS: In case you are wondering, No, I am not stuffing myself with the stuff.