Chennai’s legacy pattani shops prepare for the festive season
The Hindu
pattani kadai owners keep Ayudha pooja traditions alive with the help of delivery services, online payment platforms & temp staff to deal with increased demand. Roasting peanuts with sand from beach, they source stock from Kothavalchavadi & sift manually to ensure quality.
Right from Vinayagar Chaturthi to Karthikai Deepam, the demand for pori or puffed rice, roasted peanuts, roasted bengal gram and aval or flattened rice is very high. They are offered as prasadam or are transformed into sweets and savouries. Readymade pori and kadalai urundais are also available.
At the 120 year old K.V.Veerappa Devar peas shop, popularly known as the ‘thousand lights pattani kadai’ T Vijayarangan and family are catering to their customers’ needs, packing freshly roasted peanuts that are slightly salted and still toasty.
When my grandfather KV Veerappadevar started this shop, we had only nine items — these nuts and puffed and flattened rice. All he had then was a vessel and two sickles to roast the peanuts and peas.” says Vijayarangan.
“There were at least four to five shops in every area and were very popular landmarks. If someone got a post, they would just ask for it to be delivered at the pattani shop by the tree or around the corner,” he adds
For A Krishnamurthy, the owner of the A.K.M Pattani Kadai in Mandaveli his old shop which was set up by his grandfather almost 8 decades ago, on the next street in the middle of Mandaveli market was that landmark. “We had to let go of that place because the entire building was sold. We moved into this shop 22 years ago and haven’t been able to roast our peanuts and peas here. There’s no space for an exhaust fan,” says the 70-year-old shop owner.
“We didn’t need a name board, advertisements or whatsapp groups— the aroma of freshly roasted peanuts was enough to lure customers. I’ve lost that gift now,” he repents.
The few independent peanut shop owners today mostly source their stock from Kothavalchavadi in Parrys. The pori comes puffed in sacks but the peas, peanuts, chickpeas and other nut varieties are procured raw.
he Tamil Nadu Government will take appropriate decision to protect the welfare and livelihood of Manjolai tea estate workers as Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation, which is managing the tea gardens for the past 90-odd years, is about to wind up its operations in near future, Speaker M. Appavu has said.