Shree Sai Foods

No. 65 on Similar Street is where we set up. Thiruvanaikaval is a busy area, and being right here means we see a lot of people passing by every single day. Shree Sai Foods isn't some big factory with machines doing everything. It’s mostly hands-on work in the back. The kitchen gets hot, especially in the summer months when the sun hits the front of the building. We start early, usually before the rest of the street wakes up, to get things prepped. There’s always the sound of clinking pots or someone shouting an order across the room. It’s a bit messy sometimes, but that’s how it goes when you’re actually making things. We don’t have a big sign or a fancy lobby. If you walk down Similar Street, you’ll just see the door and maybe catch a whiff of whatever is cooking that morning. Sometimes the delivery guys are late because of the narrow turns, and we just have to wait around. We know most of the people who live nearby by their first names. It’s just a local operation where we try to get the orders right and keep things moving. Nothing too complicated about it. We’ve been at this address for a bit now and we’ve gotten used to the rhythm of the neighborhood. It’s just us doing our work and trying to keep the place running halfway decent without any extra bells and whistles or pretending to be something we are not.