A COP’S TAKE ON LIFE IN A NEW BOOK
A restaurant inside an organic store? The city now boasts a slew of organic stores that source and retail produce from across the country. Many are now setting up their own kitchens, adding value to their products. We try out three such places where herit
Ashopper browses through a rack in which rice and millets are stacked in neat rows; a cooker whistle goes off in the kitchen at the back, while diners start walking in to seat themselves at the short tables for a milletheavy meal. There is a lot happening towards lunch time at Nattrinai Thaenthinai at Kurumbapalayam, an organic store with a restaurant inside its premises. Nattrinai, started by three partners eleven years ago, now has two branches in the city. The store sources organic produce from marginal farmers in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. “Four years ago, we decided to open our own restaurant inside our shop,” says T Senthil Kumar, one of the founders, who is also a farmer.
The idea is to offer simple, millet and heritagerice based meals that are healthy, as well as drive home the concept of going back to our roots. “We came up with the combo meal idea after a lot of trial and error,” explains Senthil, as our lunch thaali arrives. “Initially, we did suffer setbacks since people were not used to consuming millets in the place of rice,” he adds.
Their solution: mushroom biryani made with heritage rice such as iluppai poo samba, Sivan samba, and seeraga samba. “We realised we had to offer rice in some form,” he points out, adding that this worked to their favour. On our plate that day is ragi kali with tomato curry and peanut chutney, mushroom biryani made of fragrant iluppai poo samba, kuthiraivaali sambar and rasam rice, arasanikkai poriyal, thooyamalli curd rice, paruppu vadai, and laddoo for dessert. The starter is a pepperheavy soup made of mudavattukal, a tuber sourced from Kolli hills.
The meal is mild and balanced, with the mushroom biryani being the highlight. “People are not used to mixing millets with sambar and rasam like they do with rice, which is why we chose to offer them in the present form,” explains Senthil.
“We did have the fear of failure in our initial months,” Senthil says. “For instance, it is easier to stop at a bakery for an egg puff than look for a place that serves a healthy alternative made of organic ingredients.” They also had to price their meals competitively, despite using premium ingredients.
Thaenthinai also has a range of sweets and savouries. “We make them in small batches at our farm,” Senthil explains, as we try their sticky wheat halwa sweetened with country sugar. The dessert comes in cute areca leaf cups and can be had on the go. But their nattu sakkarai ragi brownies win us over more than anything. The brownies are the perfect balance of the nutty flavour of the country sugar and the slightly bitter dark chocolate.
Open for breakfast (8am to 10am), lunch (noon to 3pm), snacks and dinner (6pm to 9pm). A meal for two costs approximately ₹300. Located at Sai granites building, Sathy Road, opp. Kumaran hospital, Kurumbapalayam and 95/E, Sathy Main Road, Saravanampatti. Call 9842244133.