Special food van for busy professionals

food car

For Pawan Sharma the definition of ‘kin’ is not family or relatives. “It is my wife Kiran’s name,” says Sharma, who runs a food van ‘Kin’s food’ at Jandew

alan.

 Every day around 12 noon, Sharma, on his sedan, laden with containers of food, reaches Jhandewalan. He pastes the poster on either side of the car and opens the car boot.  Places two plastic tables on the footpath and starts catering. 
 “It is three years now. Every day I come with the lunch and leave by 3 pm,” he says. After facing loss in transport business, he decided to enter into food business. “I realised people who are staying away from their families and working in the area, were not getting proper food. So, the main objective is to provide home cooked meals in an area like Jhandewalan where there are maximum offices.” 

He could have opened a shop in the area, just like others. “But it is not that easy. Opening a shop is expensive because the rent is high. To meet the expense, we will have to either raise the price or compromise with the quality. We did not want to do either of the two. Our purpose is to serve fresh and pure meal like home, within a limited budget,” he says seriously.
To cater the need, Sharma and his wife Kiran wakes up at five in the morning. He does the chopping of vegetables while Kiran looks after the major part of cooking.  They also have a helper to assist them. “Initially my wife used to come along with me, but now I am completely handling the business.” 

Every day more than 200 people visit his food van. “Almost 100-150 customers are fixed. They take lunch from us while remaining are those who come to nearby cycle market.” Ensuring that food doesn’t become monotonous for the regular customers, Sharma changes the menu frequently. 
“The dry vegetable is changed each day. Kisi din gobhi hoti hai, kabhi matar ya soyabean. But the gravy item is fixed which are Rajma, Chhole, Dal and Kadhi. Customers have the option to select any two in their thali,” he tells Metrolife. 

So, professionals have the option of taking four rotis and two gravy dishes in one thali which costs Rs 40. If rice is added it becomes Rs 50. People also have the option to take one full plate of rice with any of the gravy dishes at the same price. Sharma is happy that people are appreciating his food. “By any chance if the car is not present during weekdays, our customers complain of upset stomach after having food from other food stalls,” he says with a gleam in his eye.