Get your taste buds ready for delightful Margazhi delicacies

The year-end Margazhi music festival in Chennai is not just for classical music lovers, but also foodies as catering services offer elaborate menu at the ‘sabhas’ that are the venues for these performances.

Every year during Tamil month Margazhi, sabhas in the city tie-up with caterers to serve food throughout the day. Their menu ranges from pongal-vada for breakfast to South Indian delicacies served on banana leaf and crispy dosas with piping hot sambar for dinner. Over the years, Margazhi music season has become a platform for these caterers to experiment and bring out innovative dishes.

N Padmanabhan, proprietor of Padmanabhan catering service has introduced millet-based rice and dosa varieties for the health conscious rasikas.

The millet varieties include varagu, samai, thinai, kelvaragu, ragi and kambu. Padmanabhan said: “When people come every year, they look forward to variety. If we serve good food, it translates to better customer turnout as the food is not restricted to rasikas. Many office-goers too look forward to eating scrumptious meal during Margazhi season.”

Meenambiga catering services that has partnered with Mylapore Fine Arts club this season has dished out many new varieties this year as well. This includes four types of mini kozhukattais (South Indian dumpling) in lemon, coconut, paruppu usili and milk flavour and 10 varieties of vada. While we have heard of mini idly and sambar, the caterer has introduced mini idly with mor kozhambu, another South Indian dish.

K Bhaskaran, Proprietor of Meenambiga catering, said, “Since many come here just to taste food, this serves as a good platform for testing our new dishes. If they succeed, we add them to our marriage menu.”

But there is a sense of disappointment among caterers as the crowd was not as expected. Bhaskaran said, “Last year people did not turn up because of flood, but this year demonetisation played a huge role.”

The government pulled ₹500 and ₹1,000 currencies out of circulation last month. This has resulted in severe crunch in low denomination notes.

“During lunch hours, it would impossible for us to manage. But that is not the case anymore,” he said. The caterer usually sees 1,000 people for lunch during this season, but it stood at 300 this year. So the caterer reduced items in the menu from 25 to 15. Bhaskaran said, “Though we anticipated drop in customers, it is not to this extent.”

While some caterers like Padmanabhan catering services have installed Point of Sale (PoS) machines, others have not. Bhaskaran said, “We could not get the machine on time, so giving change is one of the biggest challenges.”

According to an organiser from Lakshman Sruthi Musicals that organises the event Chennaiyil Thiruvaiyaru, this year was a let down.

The food court could accommodate around 100 stalls but this year there were only 40. Since many of them are small-time players, the organiser said, “They did not come forward to put up a stall due to cash crunch and we even got few last minute cancellations.”

Even the few who have put up stalls are not seeing any traction. Charulatha KM, who sells South India savoury appalam, said, “Usually we can earn ₹4,000 per day but this year we are having difficulty getting customers. Even few who come are not buying as I do not have a PoS machine. So far I have been able get only ₹500 per day.”