We have reached before time and we wait for Akka to arrive. She does at 7:00 pm sharp and immediately gets busy with a few prayers and only then turns to us. Akka is 51-year-old A Sivanagamani who has been selling food on her pushcart for 25 years now. She has only just moved to Ramasamy street behind All Seasons restaurant on NSR Road, she says. Before this she was in SRP Nagar.

Her billboard reads ‘Akka Kadai’. That is the name her customers have given and she won’t have it any other way. Though her husband helps in running the business, she does the lion’s share of the job, and her pushcart is a landmark in the area. She has 30 sevai varieties and 40 dosa varieties.

Butter sevai, butter egg sevai, thakkali sevai and butter koththu parotta are her signature dishes. “I began trying out new dishes and, if the customers loved it, I kept the dish on my menu,” she smiles. Idlis and and parottas are also on the menu.

A Sivanagamani makes her dosa   | Photo Credit: R Jayashree

Once the dosa kallu is ready, the crowd begins to trickle in and Akka talks as she cooks. “People travel from as far as Tiruppur, Erode, Dharapuram, Sirumugai, and Mettupalayam just to eat dinner here. What more can I ask for?” she says. Her customers upload videos about her on YouTube and she laughs saying she is not aware of that.

Just then, a young woman drops in with her father asking if the food is ready. Sudha Padmanabhan had seen a videos back in Florida where she lives and has come seeking akka out during her visit to Coimbatore. “The food looked irresistible online and I have to taste it,” she says. This is not her first overseas visitor. Her customers who have moved to the US, Saudi Arabia and Canada make it a point to call her and visit her.

As her orders pile up, Akka’s speed goes up too. She gracefully reaches for her ingredients and works her magic. “I still make my signature dosas myself, but I need help for sevai,” she says and calls Prabhakar, one of her helpers. This, she says, is because her fingers ache due to pressing out all that the sevai. “I am getting old, but the love for my job is not.”

She teases Prabhakar about how slow he is and says he has a long way to go before he catches up with her. He sportingly agrees and adds, “Definitely! I have not heard of these unique dishes even in star hotels!”

When asked about her plans to join online food delivery apps, Akka hesitates. Her first priority will always be the customer who comes in person, she says, “I don’t want to keep customers at my shop waiting while I attend to the online orders.”

Talking of her customers, she recalls a young boy who came to her shop first when he was studying in fifth grade. Recently he dropped by with his wife and two kids. Vicky! Vaa vaa. Epdi iruka?” she welcomes a young customer, Vignesh Venugopal. “I came to know of this place through Akka’s daughter, who was my schoolmate. We shifted to Gandhipuram long ago, but I still come here as I cannot get over the mind-boggling taste of her food. The way Akka treats her customers has not changed a bit,” he adds.

He debates about what to eat and finally settles for the butter podi dosa, butter koththu parotta and butter sevai. He tells us that he has brought a lot of his friends who have never been disappointed. Vignesh also gets a lot of food packed for his family back home.

We rounded up the interview with some butter podi dosa, and promised Akka that we would be back soon.