When you plan on ordering the perfect weekend meal, a vegetarian fare wouldn’t be your first choice. But if it’s a traditional vegetarian meal from Perima’s Kitchen, then bring it on. Helmed by the 59-year-old home chef, Meena Subramanian, Perima’s Kitchen in Chembur serves lip-smacking authentic Tamil delicacies to the doorstep of Mumbaikars. Her weekend meals are so popular that they get sold out within just 30 minutes. Meena Subramanian who recently got into the food business during the Covid induced lockdown, today earns ₹70,000 per month. Let’s take you on her culinary journey and give you reasons to order your weekend meal from Perima’s Kitchen.
Learning Cooking From Loved Ones
Perima means mother’s elder sister or aunt. Permia’s Kitchen rightly serves traditional home-cooked meals as prepared lovingly and nutritiously by your aunt. Meena Subramanian hails from the ancient Tamil Nadu city of Tirunelveli. While she was brought up in Mumbai, she hs stuck to her roots by learning cooking from her mother, Saraswathi. She revealed to The Mid-Day that she loved her mother’s vatha kulambu, this is a spicy concentrated sambhar. This is paired with hot steamed rice and widely eaten as comfort food, especially when one felt ill. Meena also adored her mother’s avail, a traditional dish that also finds its roots in the Mahabharata, Avial is a vegetable stew prepared with 13 different veggies grown in the Western Ghats. She also honed her cooking skills from her mother-in-law Lakshmi, who taught her to prepare crispy murukku and thattai.
Inspiration To Start Perima’s Kitchen
With rich knowledge in cooking ancient Tamil delicacies, recipes passed on over generations, Meena Subramanian was a well-known cook in her family. She would often prepare packets of murukku and thattai and shop them off for her nieces. On tasting her food, they often encouraged their aunt to turn her cooking into a business. But since Meena had her aged parents to take care of, she didn’t give it much thought. According to The Better India, in 2020 during the lockdown, she sent a few of her vegetarian dishes to her son’s friends. They called and encouraged her to start pursuing this on a commercial scale. They insisted on offering her money as they repeated food requests. That was when Meena Subramanian decided to start Perima’s Kitchen and give Mumbaikars a taste of traditional vegetarian Tamil meals.
Also Read: 7 South Indian Comfort Meals To Boost Your Immunity
Preparing Food Using Ingredients Sourced From Tirunelveli
To give patrons a taste of the authentic flavours of Tamil cuisine, Meena sources critical ingredients like oil, tapioca, sambar and rasam powders from Tirunelveli. During her twice-a-year trips, she picks also up cold press oil, black lentils for idli, powders for pickles and more. Meena prepares pure vegetarian meals which don’t include onion and garlic, except for sambar. She grinds fresh masala two days before cooking her menu on Sunday mornings. The use of ingredients sourced from Tirunelveli gives her dishes authenticity and enhances the quality. And that’s what truly induces foodies to try out these regional delicacies.
View this post on Instagram
Also Read: Tamil Nadu Chef Makes RasamGo Viral In USA Due To Its Immunity Boosting Ingredients
Order Tamil Delicacies From Perima’s Kitchen On Instagram
While Perima’s Kitchen has no à la carte menu, foodies can devour a lavish whole meal delivered to their doorstep every alternate weekend. The meal consists of three vegetarian curries like aromatic rasam, sambhar or kadhi, a coconut-infused curry, papad, pickle, buttermilk or curd, rice, salad and a sweet dish. The meal costs between ₹800 to ₹1000 and serves two. Perima’s Kitchen puts out a new menu every Monday on Instagram. People must order their meals for the following Sunday. The orders are limited to 35 to 40 deliveries, and this gets sold out in less than half an hour.
View this post on Instagram
On receiving the order, Meena starts the preparation from Saturday. Meena, a one-woman-army, grinds masalas and chops vegetables. By 11:30 am on Sunday, the food is ready for delivery. Her bestsellers include dishes like Bisi Bele Bath, Avial, Payasam, Rasam Vada and Tamarind Idlis. Well, while through her delicious homemade food Meena transports foodies every weekend to the ancient city of Tirunelveli. So are you ready to go on this culinary journey from Mumbai to Tirunelveli?