TRIVANDRUM: A former Dubai-based investment banker who quit his job to pursue his main passion - Malabar’s traditional food - is all set to take it to the GCC cities.

Aneez Adam, 32, an alumnus of London School of Economics from where he took his specialist master’s, worked in Dubai for eight years before launching the first Thattukada or pop-up outlet of Adam’s Teashop in Kozhikode last month.

He plans to open his first offshore outlets in Dubai in four months, at Karama, Barsha and Mirdiff, followed by other cities in the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain and in London, where he spent two years to obtain his duel masters (from Lancaster University and LSE).

As a prelude, he has started a week-long NRI festival at his Convent Junction outlet opposite St Joseph Girls High School in the northern Kerala city on Sunday for vacationing expatriates.

The Adam’s Thattukada offers a wide range of Malabar specialities evolved over the years from the region’s close proximity to the Arabian and European spice traders for centuries.

His menu has no trace of artificial additives or colors and he hopes the youngsters would shun junk food turn to outlets like his to stay healthy.

“I use a varieties vegetables like carrot and beetroot to give attractive colours. For instance, I add amaranthus leaves to look the fried chicken reddish,” he said. “Its extract only enhances the taste and health benefits.”

Besides, he offers his own inventions like chicken blasts, chicken maram chutti, chicken wrapped-up and chicken hungama - named instantly after every successful experiment.

In all, there are more than 30 fried chicken items with distinctive flavours and taste to order at his outlet which has turned almost a rage with the young crowd breaking fast. It’s open only after sundown during the Ramadan.

He cooks only organically fed chicken, which costs double that of the broiler variety, but still manages to serve them with attractive price tags. He also selected his cooks, 12 in all, from the street-corner eateries and trained them.

Before opening the pop-up outlet in front of his house on the busy city street, he tested the market by setting up a stall at the Mathrubhumi food festival held in the city in January.