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Spicy liver fry, meen kuzhambu, kaadai: A lookback at Chennai’s military hotels

Sep 21, 2021

Some of Chennai’s most famous restaurant chains such as Ponnusamy and Anjappar began in the ‘50s and ‘60s as ‘military’ messes.

In Poes Garden, a swanky new restaurant called Manjal opened up in early 2021. Manjal’s highlight is that they do not have menus, but do a live display of their food.  Guests are shown a silver plate or thattu with partitions filled with mutton chukka, nethili fry, squid and prawn masala, kaada (quail) 65, chicken 65, veral meen kuzhambu, chicken pepper fry, aatu kaal paaya and many more items, from which they can pick what they like. 

The live display is a hit among Chennai’s ‘who’s who’ and several celebrities have visited Manjal since it opened up. But the restaurant’s USP is hardly new as this was a tradition pioneered by Chennai’s famous ‘military hotels’ in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Today the phrase ‘military’ is not used in a culinary context and only evokes a vague sense of a bygone era. But back in the day, military hotels dominated the non-veg culinary space of Madras, offering all kinds of meats loaded with masalas to its guests, who were mostly men.

Most popular among them is Velu’s Military Hotel, which has stood the test of time and still serves its loyal customers from its outlet on Eldams Road. An urban legend that originated from the smoky kitchens of Velu Military goes this way: Madurai man Velu Ambalam, who founded the hotel, would check if the smell of the meen kuzhambu or fish curry from the kitchen wafted to the road outside. If he could not catch the smell of the kuzhambu while he was walking to the hotel, he would barge into the kitchen, chuck the gravy simmering in the pot and instruct his cooks to make the fish curry from scratch. No wonder that the standout dish at Velu Military continues to be its meen kuzhambu. Despite being founded nearly seven decades ago, Velu’s fish curry is still a smash hit and customers swear by the flavour and consistency – perhaps an outcome of the high standards set by Velu Ambalam who controlled the kitchen until he passed away in 1996. 

However, it is not just the meen kuzhambu, military hotels across Madras were known to serve all kinds of spicy meat items. “The idea was to offer spicy food, which is ideal after a drink or two. Not surprisingly, most of the military hotels only had men dining in back in the day. This continues to date,” explains Ashwin Rajagopalan, a culinary expert and content architect who has researched extensively on ‘Military messes and hotels’ in the city. 

Writer and journalist Nirupama Submranian writes that back in the ‘60s ‘military’ was a euphemism for protein or meat. In an era where vegetarian was considered ‘godly’, Chennai’s ‘military hotels’ with their ‘protein heavy’ menu were the city’s best open secret. The limousines of Tamil film stars would often be seen outside these hole-in-the-wall places, loading massive tiffin carriers with the non-vegetarian fare to eat in their homes, studios or sets,” she writes in her book Murder on the Menu, the sensational story of the tycoon who founded Saravana Bhavan. If military was the umbrella term for non-veg, Udupi referred to all south vegetarian fare. This was before the Adyar Ananda Bhavans, the Saravana Bhavans and the Sangeethas dotted the vegetarian restaurant market in Tamil Nadu. “If you wanted a good vegetarian meal, you had to go to an Udupi restaurant. It didn’t matter if the chefs had no clue how food in Udupi cuisine tasted like, the eatery would still be an Udupi restaurant if it served only vegetarian food,” says Ashwin Rajagopal, food historian and show host.

When it comes to military hotels, another popular theory for the origin of the term was that these hotels cropped up to cater to the country’s soldiers. But they quickly turned into eateries where any male patron who craved non-veg could walk-in and have a protein-heavy meal for affordable rates

Not Chettinad 

While Nirupama in her book refers to the cuisine in military hotels as having a ‘Chettinad signature’, food historian and show host Rakesh Raghunathan begs to differ. “Chettinad has now become synonymous with Tamil non-veg fare. But you could offend a Nattukottai Chettiar if you compare the food you get in these hotels to the traditional Chettinad fare,” he says with a laugh. Rakesh explains that authentic Chettinad food was subdued in flavour compared to the spicy bombs offered in the military messes or hotels. “A Chettinad chicken curry will have a pepper-heavy flavour. It would be spicy but not a confluence of all masalas. Chettinad cuisine has a specific flavour palate,” he explains. 

A closer comparison of military hotel fare could be the Madurai cuisine, says Ashwin Rajagopal. Madurai is renowned for its many messes, the most famous ones being the Amma Mess and the Chandran Mess. “You have some signature dishes like mutton marrow omelette, meat omelettes, nenjezhumbu chops etc,” he says. The Madurai fare is high on spice and also serves rare meats, much like the military hotels in Chennai. For example, back in the day, rabbit or muyal roast, venison, kaadai (quail – which is still served) and other meats were available in the military hotels. The USP of these messes are that their masalas and spices are hand-ground, and not bought from outside.  

Staying relevant 

By the 1990s, military messes began fading away from Chennai’s culinary maps. However, some of them, Velu included managed to stay relevant with a few changes,

Among them are Anjappar and Ponnusamy, big family-style restaurant chains which had humble beginnings as military messes. 

Ponnusamy restaurant. Image credit: Facebook/Ponnusamy Restaurant

“We started in 1964 as a military mess in Royapettah. My father, Anjappan, started the mess after working with former Chief Minister MG Ramachandran as his in-house chef. We are from Chettinad and my dad learnt the recipes that we use at Anjappar from his mother and grandmother,” says A Marunthapandian, who is now running the chain with his two brothers. Anjappan opened the restaurant with the intent to feed hungry bachelors staying at the YMCA in Royapettah. But the future had much more in store for the young cook from Chettinad.

Hailing from Ponamarvathy in Karaikudi, Anjappan moved to Madras in search of a better life and ended up founding what is now one of the most famous Chettinad family-style restaurant chains in Tamil Nadu. “We started off by showing our food to customers in the true military mess style. We had a small non-AC space in Royapettah with benches and tables where men would come to sit and eat,” explains Marunthapandian. But the mess closed in 1995. 

Three years later, Anjappan and his sons rented another space, this time in Radhakrishnan Salai close to the Marina Beach. To stay relevant, Anjappan and his sons had ideas which were ahead of their times.

“We decided to rebrand our hotel. So we took off the word ‘military’ as it was getting redundant and replaced it with Chettinad – which is really the food we serve. We added other foods – Indo-Chinese, Tandoori, North Indian etc – to lure  crowds, especially children as well,” he explains. The idea was to take Anjappar from a men’s only ‘military hotel’ den to a family-style restaurant, and Anjappan and his sons even fitted an A/C in their RK Salai restaurant.

Photo credit: Facebook/Kopal Rengaswamy Rajagopal

Barring rabbit and some other meats, Anjappar retains the fare it served back in the ‘60s. “We have mutton preparations, and all types of seafood including crab, prawns, squid etc,” he says, adding that Anjappar still hand-grinds all the masalas – a military hotel tradition that it has retained. Brand Anjappar now has 19 branches in Chennai and has also expanded globally, to Singapore, Malaysia, Germany, USA and Canada. 

Smaller shops receive social media attention 

While Velu Military Mess retains its ‘military tag’, a lack of reform in the dining space means that the hotel continues to attract only men. However, other brances of the famous brand have cropped up in Chennai. One of them is Velu Family Restaurant in Nungambakkam.

“They (original Velu Miltary Hotel) haven’t rebranded and the hotel remains exactly how it was six-seven decades ago. It is dingy and it is not meant for a family crowd,” Ashwin adds. 

With a food vlog explosion on Instagram and YouTube, several of Chennai’s ‘hole-in-the-wall’ eateries are getting a fresh lease of life. “Trouser Anna Kadai or shop, a tiny non-veg eatery in Mandaveli is one such place which has benefitted from social media, with vloggers making videos on the food served here,” Rakesh adds. 

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While military hotels may have exited the scene for all intents and purposes, Chennai continues to see an explosion of non-vegetarian restaurant chains now exploring various cuisines of Tamil Nadu. 

“Ten years ago, there was a ‘Chettinad’ cuisine to describe any kind of non-veg, but now there are eateries offering Rawther cuisine, Madurai, Kayalpattinam cuisine etc,” Rakesh says. To this, Ashwin says “people are always on the lookout for new culinary experiences. Which means that in the next ten years, we can even expect a Thoda restaurant(tribal community from the Nilgiris) to become popular in the city/state.”

Source: The News Minute

Published in News