It’s lunchtime in Tech and the cafeteria is abuzz. Some students whip out wildcards to pay for poke while others pull out tupperwares packed from home. But there’s a third option for those in the know — and devotees swear it’s the best around.
Manna’s Kitchen, started by Anoop and Sumita Manna in 2018, offers freshly packed and delivered tiffins every weekday. Tiffin is a South Asian term for packed lunch.
For McCormick doctoral student Dipdimn Kundu, Manna’s meals are part of a busy daily routine.
Dipdimn Kundu: “First of all I don’t like cooking and maybe, yeah, I also don’t get time to cook.”
Kundu has relied on Manna’s seven dollar platters of Indian food for a quick and healthy lunch for the past two and a half years.
Communications grad student Archita Arun treats herself to Manna’s every few weeks.
ARCHITA ARUN: It feels authentic, it also feels like it’s made with a lot of love and care.
Manna’s kitchen serves many international students.
ARUN: My parents live in Mumbai, in India, so I’ve been living away from home for a while, almost 10 years.
Arun describes Sumita’s cooking as a taste of home.
ARUN: I was like a very picky eater, growing up. And my mom was working. So she would like find ways to incorporate healthy things into food that look unhealthy and fried. So something like this, like a zucchini corn kofta is exactly what she would make.
For Arun, the food quality, portions and price make it well worth the 15 minute trek from her classes on the south side of campus.
ARUN: It feels very much like a secret, because the humanities people don’t know about it.
Although it’s not a secret Arun wants to keep.
ARUN: I guess I have to spread the gospel
To try Manna’s Kitchen, you need an in. Orders can be placed through the over 400 member WhatsApp group. On Saturday, Sumita sends out the rotating weekly menu. The menu offers 3 to 4 vegetarian and non vegetarian options per day.
That was Manna’s Kitchen loyalist Anurup Mohanty, a PHD candidate in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences.
Manna’s Kitchen, unlike uber eats or campus food options, is run entirely by the two owners, who cook and deliver the food.
ARUN: It just feels like I’m supporting an actual person. and not like a business I know nothing about.
Sumita and Anoop Manna politely declined my interview request. But the couple is dedicated to serving their customer base.
KUNDU: “I actually forgot to pick up my tiffin, okay. And when I went there, it was not, the tiffin was just gone.”
When Kundu’s tiffin went missing, Anoop Manna rose to the occasion.
KUNDU: “He contacted many other students as well as someone else took my Tiffen”
In the end, Kundu’s tiffin was not recovered.
KUNDU: “the bad thing was I gave him the payment, but he didn’t accept it. He returned me back the money”
Sumita also encourages feedback on how she can improve the food quality.
Manna’s Kitchen and its WhatsApp group have fostered a community between the students, lab assistants, and doctoral candidates who rely on their service, bringing a little joy and simplicity to the maze of Tech.
And now, that community is reaching back to Sumita and Anoop. Kundu and Mohanty, who are roomates want to show their thanks to the Mannas.
KUNDU: “me and my roommate, like we planned like at least before we graduate, we would at least invite both, like Sumitaavan and Anno, like to like come to our house. to give them some party because they saved us a lot of time. Yeah, for sure. Like we have this plan in future. Would you cook for them? Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, we can cook, but we just don’t cook.
For Mohanty, Manna’s Kitchen is the answer to the fundamental question of eat to live or live to eat.
In Evantson, Tillie Freed, WNUR News.