My memory of having the most mouth-watering paratha was not from a big restaurant, but a small road side shop that my friend I discovered. As much as I remember the paratha, I remember the joy of discovering the place and the whole experience of eating there. If streets could talk you would ask them not only for directions but also about the best places to eat around them. Well if you are a true foodie, you most likely would! No matter how many fancy restaurants we go to, there is a certain charm to street food that gives you not only great flavors but also unique experiences. I caught up with the founder of Talking Street Maheima Kapur, who is doing the next best thing to making streets talk! Through her venture Talking Street, she is giving you all the information in one place.
A business administration graduate from IIM Bangalore, with more than a decade of experience working in the FMCG sector, Maheima is a street food enthusiast herself. Her passion for finding interesting new places combined with her interest in photography lead to how Talking Street first came to be. Started in July 2014, Maheima spent the first few months discovering places and photographing the food herself. As she collected more and more information she realized the potential of this unique platform. In Oct 2014, she launched the site publicly. A lot of people showed interest in this concept and the information the site provided. Maheima decided to take her venture to the next level. Overtime Naganand Doraswamy and Siddharth Mathur came on board as Mentor and Technical Advisor, respectively. Talking Street also has a few interns who provide interesting information on the street food scenario and profile the vendors.
The current version of Talking Street was launched in June 2015. If you visit the site today you will find information on places based on what you are in a mood for. Be it chats, kebabs, South Indian Tiffin, you can find information relevant to your cravings. For each listing, you will find details on what it is famous for, overall menu description, location, directions, contact details and other specific details. With a photographer behind this whole idea, I cannot fail to mention that you will also find food photographs that will for sure make you want to visit the place right away.
Maheima says the whole idea of Talking Street is to bring to limelight places that are not all fancy joints at the first glance, but serve food that is phenomenal and definitely worth a try. She has been working on making the information available in a format that makes it easy for everyone to access it. Talking Street’s process of adding a stall to its listing is a lot more than just spotting a place and taking down the information. They have their own set of metrics that they check before they approve an eating joint. When it comes to street food the hygiene factor is a much debated issue. Some look at it with pinch of salt, accepting that it is a part of the package. There are others who would be skeptical about street food because of this issue. While popularity and taste play a vital role in their metrics, Talking Street also does a hygiene check of the joint/stall. Not only this, the team also makes it a point to talk to the vendors and understand their background. Visit their blog section to read some interesting stories about the people behind the food, and know their journey.
Talking Street seems to have struck the right chord among its audience as many people have actually asked Maheima if they can contribute to the site based on their own experiences. As of now they list places in Bangalore but she has already got queries from other places like Chennai and Goa. Expansion plans are definitely on the cards for Talking Street and Maheima confirms that her vision is to cover as many cities in India as possible.
Mobility of street food joints is one of the biggest challenges that Talking Street is facing. Vendors sometimes move their stalls without any notice, and keeping a tab on their location is often difficult. Maheima is working on coming up with a system of revisiting them every once in a while to ensure the addresses on the site are correct. Communicating the concept to the vendors is another challenge for this venture. While some vendors are very receptive to their idea and even oblige when they want take pictures or shoot videos, some of them don’t grasp the benefits right away. Despite these challenges Talking Street has many stalls and joints listed on its site. They are definitely doing a great job of making people aware of these food joints that deserve the spotlight but do not have means to get it themselves.
As her approach with Talking Street, Maheima’s advice to all entrepreneurs who build such platforms is to understand the needs of the both sides, the users, and the vendors. She also emphasizes on execution. “Any idea, simple or complex needs a clear execution and needs to be consistently built upon to suit the venture’s goals”, she adds in the end.
Talking Street is your destination website to find the street food experience you are craving for. Don’t forget to stop by their blog and their Facebook Page to know what’s interesting down your street.
Images Courtesy Of Talking Street
Maheima has done a great job, and I being in the city for last one n half decade only came to realise that Bangalore streets also talk and have the amazing delicacies to offer….