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Who is the city? Walk III - Street Food of Trivandrum

A Tasty Walk to Remember
written by: Sruthi Kuppadakath, Law Student, Government Law College Trivandrum


I’ve been in Trivandrum as long as I can remember, so are those stationary vans that supply food near Vellayambalam junction. After the heavy traffic around 8ish, daily these vans appear out of nowhere and start their work: feeding hungry tummies of people, cats and dogs. The smell of roasted beef from Sabu uncle’s “ALIF MAHAL” was simply irresistible, and that is where the ‘Who is the City’ walk began. It has been almost 20 years that the van has been stationary at the very place. Perhaps it is long enough for people to feel that van is a part of the junction during evening hours. As we walked and tasted one dish after other, we grew used to the rich aroma of chicken fry and porrotta served lovingly by the non-malayali chettans at the kitchens right outside the vans. I was savoring the juicy beef roast and I spotted a small table across the road with a banner that read “Payasam”. The smell of roasted Prathaman dipped in milk, turning it into light brown color made my mouth water. We were 10 of us for the walk and we immediately jumped to that little space on the footpath. It was run by a lady named Preetha. I asked her why a payasam store in a street bustling with chicken fry, duck ommellett, beef roast, ediyappam, puttu and many more. She smiled and said, “payasam is different”. She was right, we could have a kadala paaysam or paalpaayasam right at the middle of the junction whenever we wanted, one need not wait for Onam or Vishu! We continued the walk visiting vans and dosa stalls arranged here and there along the street, trying out rasavada, omlette, beef chilli, idiappam and all. Out of curiosity I enquired if they had ever tried shifting their location to some other place in the city and why do they choose to be where they are every day, every month, every year? To my surprise everyone said they have never left the Vellayambalam Junction. Some of them feels that, even if they leave for a day, their daily customers might go hungry. For them being there is to serve potions of happiness to their daily customers. Then we reached a Tattukada with no name, which served the most amazing Idiyappam and takkali curry, and trust me that takkali curry did have tomatoes. And finally, our walk ended at a van that was decorated with Chinese lantern figures dimly lit for a pleasant evening: “FORK & SPOON” . It reminded me of POW’s noodle van with secret ingredient noodle stories. We ordered veg noodles and chilli chicken. Walking down the lane from Vellayambalam to Vazhutacaud, I saw many different shades of food and tasted some of the best. More importantly, I met people who started these vans and shops as a business and for whom now it is more about serving hungry tummies. If you happen to see such a van, I’m sure you’ll see people of this city at work - feeding tummies of the hungry people along with the hungry cats and dogs; for a walk towards “hungry stomach, filling food” is simply irresistible.




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