Ammirdham Traditional Foods

Our small unit is over in Thiruvalluvar Nagar, specifically at 16-H Smig in Tondiarpet. It is an older neighborhood and we have been operating out of this spot for a while. The air usually smells like roasted spices and lentils because that is what we do all day. We make traditional foods the way we learned at home, without any of the shortcuts you see in big factories. It takes a lot of manual labor. We sit on low stools sorting through ingredients and making sure everything is clean. There is no air conditioning here, just the ceiling fans spinning fast to keep the humidity away. Most of our workers live within walking distance, so we feel like a little family. We don't have a big marketing budget or a website that looks professional. Most people find us by word of mouth or by following the smell of our kitchen. Sometimes we run out of stock earlier than expected and have to tell people to come back tomorrow. It’s frustrating but we can only make so much in a day by hand. We keep our ledgers in simple notebooks and do our tallying every evening. It’s a quiet life, focused on making things that taste like they should. We just keep our heads down and do the work. It is not always easy but it is what we know.