Sweet Meat Street - 5 Things to Know Before Visiting

SM Street (Sweet Meat Street or Mittai Theurvu) is located in the centre of Kozhikode City in Kerala State in Southern India. It is the busiest street in Kozhikode and derives it name from the times when the street was filled with sweet stalls. 

History of Sweet Meat Street

The name Sweet Meat Street is thought to have been derived from a sweet called ‘Halwa’. It is a kind of sweet with a soft rubbery texture, and from long time ago itself the sweet was very famous in the area. The sweets were called ‘sweetmeat’ by the European traders owing to the texture and the area started to be called as Sweet Meat Street or SM Street as it is called now. 

 

The street is in existence for about 600 years and most likely be occupied by the sweet manufacturers from Gujarat, the western most state of India. A now abandoned Parsi cemetery, most likely to be built in the the 17th century is found here.

In and around SM Street

Today the streets are packed with shops that sell anything and everything including the famed sweets and banana chips to jewellery to Ayurvedic medicines. With rows of shops in each side of the narrow street offering all kinds of textiles, sweets, confectionaries, utensils, perfumes, toys, hair salons, juice bars etc at cheap prices, this is a unique shopping experience to have.

The street will be crowded throughout the day and vehicles are not allowed to enter inside during the peak hours. During the local festival seasons such as Vishu, Onam, Ramazan the shops remain open till midnight and the street itself resembles a festival.

 

Walking through the pathways of SM street in the evenings and night is a colourful experience. The sweet shops display huge blocks of the colourful Kozhikodan Halwa and many other mouth watering delicacies. The halwa is the most sought after sweet by the locals and visitors. The sweet is available in many different flavours.

Despite rapid developments in the city, the buildings in the street still retains its old structures, some of which are over a hundreds of years old. The statue of eminent Malayalam writer S.K.Pottekkat stands facing the street. His novel ‘Oru Theruvinte Katha’ (the story of a street) is based on SM street.

 

Getting to SM Street

The street is located very near to Kozhikode Railway Station and bus stand, you can just walk fifteen minutes to reach there and it is very a popular place in the city.