Thiruvananthapuram’s first millets café set to open

pathayam millets cafe to open in thiruvananthapuram on april 26

If you are planning to switch over from cereals to millets, head to Pathayam – Millets Café, the first millets café in the Thiruvananthapuram district, which will open on April 26.

The initiative comes in the wake of 2023 being declared the International Year of Millets. The cafe is being launched by Millet Mission-Kerala, a ‘people’s campaign for promoting millets and wellness’, started by a group of voluntary organisations and institutions with the support of the National Bank For Agriculture And Rural Development (NABARD). The Mission was launched at a the state-level declaration of the International Year of Millets held at Mitraniketan in the city on December 31, 2022.

“There is an unprecedented focus on millets now. However, most people are still ignorant about the varieties of millets and their benefits. So we took it as a challenge to create that awareness,” says Sreelatha S, chairperson, Millet Mission-Kerala.

According to Pankajakshan, director of Santhigram, one of the promoters of Millet Mission, the Mission has conducted several programmes to take millets to more people and the millets café is a new step in that direction. “Many people don’t know about the range of dishes that can be made with millets; this café will get them to experience that,” he says.

Sreelatha mentions that at the launch of Millet Mission, a millet lunch had been arranged. “We had ragi (finger millet) soup, chama kanji (little millet gruel), varagu (kodo millet) pulao, payasam made with thina (foxtail millet) and pineapple, and a curry using manicholam (sorghum) and jackfruit,” she explains.

The millet café will be managed by Gangadharan, who used to run Pathayam Naturopathic Organic Restaurant near the Secretariat. “There will be dosa, idli, puttu or chapathi made with millets. We have a special millet lunch, which will have Pathayam’s usual spread of fruit payasam, sprouts, salad, and curries like aviyal and thoran with millet soup, millet chapathi, millet rice and millet payasam. Then there would be steamed snacks ada and kozhukatta made with millet flour. Millet puttu and kanji will be served for dinner,” says Gangadharan.

The cafe has the space to conduct events and training programmes. The 48-seater café, open from 8am to 9pm will also have books, raw millets and millet-based products.