Some time around 1910, a young man from Tamil Nadu developed a liking for sev, a Gujarathi snack. Shunmuganathan Nadar, a native of Sattur in the present day Virudhunagar district, was then dabbling in the nascent food industry, preparing peanut chikkis and nanari sharbat.
He thought of tweaking this sev, which in its original form was a bland chickpea flour-based salty snack. For the South Indian palette, it needed to be spicier. For that, he added the hot red chillies grown in the region around Sattur. This, combined with a dash of mountain garlic that he sourced from the Western Ghats, was enough to give a piquant taste to the savoury and thus making it native to the region.
In 1914, he set up the M.S. Shanmuganadar Mittai Kadai and kara sev became its signature dish that went on to be replicated by other sweet stalls in and around Sattur. They now jostle for space with other major players like Sri Shanmuga Vilas Sweets and Bakery and Lala Sweet.
