Local entrepreneur, Navina Bartlett, will be selling her thoroughly modern Indian cuisine in the Old City as ‘hot meals’ at the weekly Friday Food Market on Wine Street.
Coconut Chilli has developed a range of South Indian meal pots inspired by the ingredients from the Coorg region, in the coffee hills above India’s ‘silicon city’ Bangalore. Navina has been selling her retail ready chilled products for six months, but following customer demand Bristol City Council’s markets department has now amended Coconut Chilli’s license to include hot food.
Navina Bartlett, Founder and Boss Lady, Coconut Chilli states;
“Markets are a right of passage for many food start-ups – think Chomp, Grillstock and Pieminister – it’s the ideal way to test a concept. We have the added benefit of social media and our customers are using Twitter and Facebook to tell their friends to try our food which is perfect exposure’.
High altitude regions where the air is cooler are known as ‘Hill Stations’ all over the sub-continent and are a legacy of the British Raj who retreated there during blisteringly hot Indian summers.
The Coorg region is where Navina Bartlett, spent many a summer on her aunt’s coffee estate. The hillsides house acres of coffee bushes and there are a huge variety of plants growing in amongst the coffee. Ingredients include coconuts, bamboo, pumpkin, cardamom, oranges and chillies.
The ready meals are made in small batches by hand in Yate, just outside Bristol and include a spicy lamb and black pepper keema meatballs in spicy coconut gravy as well as creamy shrimp and coconut milk korma with crunchy cashews.
Coconut Chilli’s award winning meal pots can be bought chilled and heated in the microwave at work or home. During lunchtime hours they sell the same dishes as ‘hot meals’ with basmati rice, toasted pitta, home made ghee and chutneys.
www.facebook.com/coconutchilli