K Sreeja is chopping a handful of shallots, seated on her veranda. It is 12.30pm, and she is just starting to make lunch for her family. Only a few hours before, she had peeled and chopped 20 kilograms of onions, assisting her husband A Krishnakumar at their family unit to make 5,000 onion puffs. Theirs is among the over 50 units at Coimbatore’s Telungupalayam locality that make savouries such as chips, mixture, and puffs. A handful among them specialise in onion puffs — palm-sized crispy triangles filled with a spicy stuffing of masala-infused onions and boiled potatoes — sold at tea shops across the city.
Most of the chips and mixture units have shut down temporarily due to increasing oil prices triggered by the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. “They are all biding their time,” Krishnakumar says, seated next to a hillock of golden-brown puffs that he just deep fried in palm oil. “They will hopefully restart once oil prices fall.” The puff units — most of them cottage industries that function at outdoor kitchens adjoining the makers’ homes — continue to run.
