Delivering the tastes of India

This app will help you buy your favourite snack from any small eatery from any part of the country, finds Jasmine Jerald
Soan Papdi from the alleyways of  Central India
Soan Papdi from the alleyways of Central India

Craving some authentic banana chips from Kozhikode or sweet rasgullas from Kolkata? Every city has that one snack that it’s famous for. In fact, it can even be narrowed down to that super-famous little store that makes it the best. Don’t fret, if you can’t travel around India to try out these local delicacies, then the local delicacies can come to you. All thanks to Flavors Of My City, an online shopping portal, that delivers these special delicacies at your doorstep, all that yummy food is just a click away.

Flavors Of My City is the brainchild of two Pune techies, co-founders Preeth Padmanabhan and Smitha Nair. Like a lot of techies and their start-up stories, it all started with a food habit, “We run an SAP consulting firm and in the office, we have an unsaid rule that anyone going on vacation must bring back the local delicacies from the place they visit. That got us wondering if it would be practical to start a platform where a person from Vadodara can taste halwa from Tirunelveli. Thus, Flavors Of My City was born,” smiles Smitha, who is a director at Qeros Software Consulting Services.

This sounded just about right to Preeth, as he adds, “I am from Kerala but as my father served in the armed forces, we moved around a lot. Growing up, I would miss the food from the different cities that I called home. Every one of us would love to relive our childhood memories and I believe that food can take us back. That’s our goal here.” In just a year, they have accumulated products from 67 cities listed on their website and their app delivers all over the country.

It’s also a great way to get kids in tune with their cultural food roots, “In this day and age, women are career-oriented, and can’t sit around and make snacks for the kids like our mothers used to make those days. But at the same time, kids shouldn’t miss out on traditional snacks,” says Smitha, before adding, “It is unbelievable how many requests we get to deliver pav or biryani from a specific store. Currently we don’t because the shelf life is very low for these kinds of food, but we hope that we will be able to deliver them once we manage better logistics.” Though they never officially launched their brand, they are quite popular on social media. They also intend to deliver abroad in the future. They are organsing a food festival and expo on December 17 and 18 to bring authentic flavours under one roof with showcases of popular monuments made out of popular food.

Reach Out: https://www.facebook.com/flavorsofmycity/

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The New Indian Express
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