Baked memories

Bakeries hold a special place in my memories of growing up in Madurai in the early ’80s. They were more than just places to buy bread and biscuits; they were little neighbourhood institutions that added flavour to our childhood, quite literally!

New City Bakery, located at Ramanpettai on New Jail Road, was the closest to my home and, naturally, the one I visited most often. Sadly, it has vanished with time, leaving behind only memories and perhaps a lingering taste on the tongue.

My favourite here was their sponge cake, wrapped in paper—a simple treat that needed neither fancy packaging nor an elaborate name to make it special. Their animal-shaped biscuits were another curiosity, almost as entertaining to look at as they were to eat.

The animal buiscuits 

Paper wrapped sponge cake 

Then there were their vathu biscuits, or vanilla drops. As a child, I innocently believed that these delights must have been made with duck eggs. The logic seemed perfectly sound to my young mind: if it was called vathu (duck) buiscuits, surely a duck had something to do with it! 

The bakery also had a mobile unit—a tricycle that made its rounds through our streets in the evenings. It was a welcome sight, bringing the bakery right to our doorstep. My grandma would buy us warm egg or coconut puffs or pupps as we locally called them!. Few things could rival the pleasure of biting into a freshly baked, still-warm puff on an ordinary evening.

Mani's bakery

Another bakery that stays nostalgic is the Mani’s Bakery at the Arapalayam Cross Road junction. Remarkably, it has survived from the 1960s to the present day, outlasting many of the neighbourhood establishments that once defined the neighborhood. Their puffs were famous too, and having one was almost a ritual whenever we visited one of my grandfather, Raja Thatha’s house, at Arapalayam. Some flavours become inseparable from the people and places associated with them, and Mani’s puffs are firmly rooted in those family memories.

Ark bakery - at the American college shopping complex that was demolished this year

Raja barley - a brand that has managed to survive a 100 years!

And then there was Raja Barley at Nethaji road, which, in my opinion, made the best breads and buns in those days. Their bread had a distinctive flavour—something I have not encountered in any other bakery since. I cannot quite explain what made it so special. Perhaps it was the recipe, the ingredients, the baking process, or simply the magic that memory adds to the food of our childhood.

Their rusks were excellent too, as were their chooseberry biscuits. Even now, when I think of the breads and buns of those days, Raja Barley immediately comes to mind. It set a benchmark that, at least in my memory, remains unbeaten.

A branch of Raja barley at the American college shopping complex that was demolished this year.. 

 

Looking back, these bakeries were much more than commercial establishments. They were woven into the everyday life of Madurai—the evening tricycle making its rounds, a grandmother bringing home warm puffs, a paper-wrapped sponge cake, and the familiar aroma of freshly baked bread.

Some bakeries have disappeared, while others have managed to survive the passage of time. But the flavours they left behind continue to live on in memory.