In the early 1900’s Ethnic Indians and second generations Burmese Indians made up
about 70% of Burma’s population. Through
the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s the military unrest lead to the exodus of Ethnic Indians
from Burma back to India.
Many of Amitav Ghosh’s books have touched upon the rich
Burmese culture and the vast immigrant population that migrated from India
throughout the nineteenth century and made a fortune in Burma.
Those who made it crossed the borders and escaped to India
amidst war, rough terrains, disease, filth and squalor. Many riches to rags stories have been told
and retold about Indians who lost everything including property, jewellery and
loved ones during the process of fleeing Burma during the Military
insurgency.
Many of them were enterprising business men and women who,
despite losing everything else did not lose their spirit of enterprise and were
determined to start from the scratch all over again back home.
They stayed in what was initially set up as a refugee shelter camp for
those who fled Burma and later transformed to become an up and coming neighbourhood
called the Burma colony.
In the early
1960’s, after having found the roof above their head, the spirited lady decided
to give the foodies of Madurai a sample of the Burmese cuisine.
She set up a small shack outside the Christian mission
hospital in Madurai, where she made rice noodles with hand pound rice and
served it with a tangy and spicy Burmese chutney. The sweeter version of the
dish came with freshly extracted coconut milk and sugar soaked in the rice
noodles.
The shack sold no other dish, but just idiyappam (rice
noodles) with coconut milk and Burmese chutney, a spicy version made among many other things with seeds of ripened Bittergourd.
Thus was born the Burmah (Burma with a H) Idiyappa kadai outside the
gates of Christian mission hospital in Madurai.
The word spread about this new Burmese dish and people came
flocking from all over the town to taste the delicacy. And for those of us who thought Idiyappam was
a traditional South Indian breakfast dish, this is a revelation. It was an import from Burma in the last 50
years that has found its way into the south Indian cuisine. Before the 1960’s a traditional Madurai Snack
would be a ‘kuzhi paniyaram’ in its savory and sweet varieties or the Appam
with coconut milk.
Idiyappam probably got its name because rice had to be
pounded (pounding in Tamil means idi) and the rice balls boiled and then set
into noodles like structures over a mechanical equipment called Nazhi. It
certainly is a labor-intensive process, but the hard work is worth the effort
for those savoring the delicacy.
As the years passed by the Burmah idiyappam kadai near the
Christian mission hospital in Madurai grew and prospered.
Today there are two branches of the same Burmah Idiyappa
kadai run by Padma and Devika at around the same place where their grandmother
had established the small shack from where she sold her idiyappam and made a
living that put a roof under their head and brought food to the table.
Burmah Idiappa kadai finds mention in Trip advisor and a
must see / must have place in the street food list for visitors to
Madurai.
They operate from six in the evening till late until midnight. ( Hence the photos of the shop in night mode)
Despite all the word of mouth publicity and the huge
customer base that the brand has amassed there are absolutely no trappings of
riches, or an aspiration to move up the value chain of fine dining in either of
the sisters.
A Hole in the wall is probably an apt description to
describe their shops. Well lit, neat and clean, their one room shops are
situated on opposite sides of the road.
One adjoining the rear entrance of Christian mission hospital, the gate
which is no longer in use and the other on the opposite side of the road.
Padma and Devika personally supervise and run their respective
eateries that open at 6 pm and close well after midnight at around 1.00
am.
There is a steady stream of
customers to both the shops. It is more a take away joint than a place to eat.
There are no chairs but Padma offers you a steel plate covered with a banana
leaf where she serves you the Idiyappam, freshly steamed and laid out on a huge
plate that can accommodate about a hundred idiyappams.
It is covered with a wet
cloth and laid out in the open. Beside the plate is a huge aluminum cooker
where more idiyappams are getting steamed.
While Padma dishes out the takeaway parcels a family member is busy
pressing the rice balls into the nazhi and squeezing the rice noodles out of
them. They would be laid out over a wet cotton cloth and steamed in the large vessel
before being filled out in the huge plate from where the idiyappams get emptied
out, thanks to the steady flow of customers who take home at least a dozen each
along with some Burmese chutney and coconut milk for which they have brought
along a stainless-steel container. The idiyappams are all packed in banana leaf
and covered with newspaper wrappings with a cotton thread that ties it all up
neatly.
All ecofriendly in the good old traditional style of
takeaway joints.
All for a pittance, which explains why they sell volumes and
also why they get sold out so quickly.
Health conscious customers prefer the Ragi variety of
idiyappams compared to the rice variety.
Padma says that off late more of the brown ragi variety gets sold faster
compared to the rice variety
The family owned Branches of Burmah Idiappa kadai have over
the last three generations maintained a non-negotiable standard of quality and
purity in their recipes.
According to them, they are unable to expand because they are skeptical that the quality of their
dish could get diluted and the hygiene factor could get compromised if they
allow people outside the family to run the shops.
One of her sons works in the IT Technology Parks in
Bangalore. Inspired by the demand for
eateries in the newly developing metropolis, they decided to employ and send a
couple of boys from the small town of Madurai to assist her son and run the
shop.
Padma says it did not work out because the boys found greener pastures in
the big city and they did not want to employ unknown people to do the work as
that would dilute the quality and hygiene that stands for the Burmah idiyappa
kadai brand. The equipment still lies in
Bangalore, but the shop has since been shut.
Padma and Devika, the sisters who have set up shop on the
opposite sides of the same road have their own loyal clientele and there is a
mild sense of co-operative competition between them. On a busy evening when one
runs out of stock, it is not unusual to buy or borrow from the other’s shop in
order to serve their loyal customers takeaway needs.
They have no aspirations to be a McDonald a pizza hut or for
that matter the Udupi outlets that dot the restaurant segment all over south
India.
A stubborn commitment to quality and hygiene, reasonable
pricing and personal supervision is what they believe is the secret to their
success as an iconic brand in Madurai sought after by backpackers and locals
alike.
There are many more idiyappam
shops that have sprung up in the town of Madurai in the last couple of decades,
but none pose any competition to them, Padma reckons.
A very matronly attitude,
pleasant demeanor customer friendly poise that makes anyone warm up to her is
what keeps the loyal customers coming back to her shop for an evening snack or
a healthy late-night dessert.
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