Craving wedding food and no wedding to attend? Chennai’s foodies have found a way
The Hindu
Chennai’s foodies are rejoicing, because they can now have wedding food without an invitation
On an overcast Sunday morning, Vasisht S, a chartered accountant from Chennai’s West Mambalam, made an announcement at home: ‘We’ll eat lunch outside.’ A few hours later, the Vasisht household — comprising 11 people — headed to a wedding feast and ate to their hearts’ content.
Only, there was no bride or groom.
The menu however, included dishes like Srirangam puliyodharai, kadamba sambar and beans paruppu usili, and featured almost everything you get at a traditional Tamil vegetarian wedding meal. Including the welcoming ambience.
Which is why this family chose to head to T Nagar’s Sri Balaji Kalyana Mandapam for lunch that day, instead of a regular restaurant. “I loved the sambar saadam (sambar rice),” says Vasisht, “Going to a hotel is expensive and the food can be dicey. The atmosphere here is very homely.”
Welcoming them and many other patrons with a big ‘namaskaram’ are M Krishna and MKL Suseela of Suvee Brahmin Caterers, who have discovered a clever niche with wedding food festivals: set up at halls, they include everything except the ceremony. The duo started with Shree Hall in December last year, an event that, Krishna says, “had T Nagar come to a standstill.”
“More than a thousand people landed from 11 to 1am that Sunday, and we were just overwhelmed with such a response. The serpentine queue trailed back till the T Nagar bus terminus,” he adds. Subsequently, they have had such events in Nanganallur and T Nagar; and are currently prepping for an unlimited leaf service this weekend at Thirumal Thirumagal Vasantha Mahal in Padi. It promises 29 dishes at ₹299, with the menu including items such as agrahara akkara vadisal and madapalli thayir sadam, food usually offered in temples.
Such a deal is a win-win for both the customers and the caterers. While the former gets a full-fledged kalyana saapaadu experience, the latter makes best use of available resources such as chefs and helpers on slow work days.