Chennai:Ā Apart from the beach, if there is something that the Besant Nagar is famous, it is for the food that is available here. Although the place is home to a number of restaurants, a majority of visitors prefer the stalls that are lined up at the shore.
One of these, ‘Pooja Fish Stall’, that is popular for its vanjaram fish cutlets, stands out. It is run by a college graduate.
Dinesh Kumar (24), who lives near the Besant Nagar church, is now taking care of this stall, that was set up in 2005.
“We serve prawns, squid, crab, vanjaram, aiyla, pomfret, finger fish, mole crab (Eli Poochi) and fish cutlets,” he says.
A BBA holder from a reputed college in the city, what made him switch fields? “After working for three months in a company, I quit and joined my mother Kalaivani in running this business. We are doing well in this, and getting decent profits. The fact that I love fish, also prompted me to take over the proceedings,” he smiles.
He makes note of the fact that the sellers need to keep changing the items on offer, depending on customers’ changing tastes and trends.
“Now, the demand is for the vanjaram fish cutlet we make. It is a tasty dish. We prepare this a bit differently from others. Our business changed for good, after we included Eli Poochi and the cutlets. But we easily run out of this crab variety, as it is difficult to catch,” he says, adding, “Recently, a YouTube channel that tried our food, gave us a good review. This got us quite a lot of attention.”
“We get an average of 20 customers a day. However, business gets dull on weekdays and rainy days. But on a given weekend, all 60 seats are full. Our food items are priced anywhere between Rs 60 and 300,” he says.
Apart from running the shop, Dinesh and his family also prepare and supply Tuna fish to 20 people, belonging to a gym.