Kozhikode milk sarbath

Everyone in Calicut knows him... And yea, his tiny shop too... Almost every ‘Kozhikkoden’ has been there at least once... Even the hot shining sun above their heads may get confused, seeing the crowd near ‘Hotel Paragon’, caring least about the climate...! If you are a ‘Kozhikkoden’, I am sure that you got the picture by now...! Yea, am speaking about Bhaskarettan’s “Milk Sarbath”, often abbreviated as “M.S” by the real taste lovers of this historical city...

One of the common enquiries by a newcomer of this city, while hiring an auto from the Railway Station or sitting on a bus at the Mofusil Bus Stand or wherever, is about the great taste of Calicut. Bhaskarettan’s MS surely grabs a prominent place in their replies, along with an unending list of tasty foods which includes the famous “Dhum Biriyani” also...

I really don’t know when and how Bhaskarettan started his milk sarbath business there. But since my childhood, am a frequent visitor of that tiny shop and I love to wait on the roadside for him to serve the best milk sarbath in the world. He also serves ‘moru’, ‘soda sarbath’, and such common drinks too, but I would always prefer MS like the hundreds of others. It’s really a treat to one’s eyes to see how he prepares MS for the whole crowd (of 15 or above always), in just a few minutes. Most of the people orders MS; still there are people who doesn’t know that other drinks are also available there...! Taking the number of drinks he then arranges the required number of glasses in perfect rows and columns. He pours out ‘nannari’, stored in 2litre plastic bottles, to almost quarter level in each glass by keeping a metal spoon horizontally between the bottle and the glass.  Now it’s half done. Leaving the spoon in any of the glasses, he reaches to the cold storage just near his chair and takes out a bottle of milk. A quick peep into the freezer will let you know that there are many such bottles of milk in between big blocks of ice. He takes out the bottle, and shakes it in a unique way, may be that’s his taste secret! Milk is poured to the glasses till they are full. And it won’t be a lie if I say that, to fill all those glasses, 2litre of milk will not be enough! Those who want ice cubes in the drink are also happy; ‘Bhaskarettan’s style’ of cracking ice into small pieces by hitting with a spoon and putting it into the glasses chills their minds too...!

So when you are in Calicut, and you feel like having a drink, then try MS... You will come back again for sure...!

      
To get there

• From Railway Station: It’s better if you would prefer walking. You may enter at one end of the famous S.M.Street, then walk along the Mananchira Park, and then you will reach your destination, situated below the C.H.Overbridge. 
• From Mofusil Bus Stand: Walk westwards along Mavoor Road, take a left turn (towards C.S.I Junction), and from there just ask anyone “Where is MS?”