Forget any associations you may have with the term 'happy meal' – no boxed burgers or plastic toys are required for Nutan Bala, who prides herself on providing service with not just a smile but a full throated laugh that can be heard across the street. And I mean 'across the street' literally - Bala's main trade to date has been street food, working from a re-purposed police box in Edinburgh's Bruntsfield area.
Serving a surprisingly wide range of dishes cooked to order, Bollywood the Coffee Box has fast become an iconic feature of Bruntsfield, the aromas and music emanating from the small box punctuated only by the hiss and sizzle of her cooking and, of course, that laugh.
Nutan Bala's Bollywood the Coffee Box
Only eight years after arriving in Edinburgh, Bala is now opening her first sit-in food premises in Tollcross, just down the road from the Bollywood Box. Her driving force, she says, is not commercial enterprise so much as a desire to challenge herself, to take risks and live life on the edge.
'I have no time for "Maybe" or "I'll try",' she explains. 'Either do it, or don't do it. That's how I live!' Every sentence is punctuated with her laugh.
She describes how she took the police box premises on a whim: 'I saw the sign, To Let, on the box and I shouted to the bus driver, "Stop! Stop!" and I jumped off and ran to the box, and rang the number on the sign and asked how much the rent was, and said "I'll take it!"' She laughs again. She hadn't even seen the inside of it when she handed over two months advance rent.
There's certainly an appetite for her curries, which, until now, she has produced on a single electric ring in a space just a few feet square. In the summer the Bollywood Box has a queue of people waiting patiently for their food to be prepared, created to their specified taste, spicier or milder to suit.
Bala created a makeshift waiting area on the grass adjacent to the box, with upturned logs for seats, in order to accommodate her customers - she never claimed her food was fast, and by her own admission she usually spent more time chatting with customers, getting to know them, than simply serving them.
Nutan caught mid-serve during the grand opening
Now she has opened Nutan's, just up from the Cameo Cinema, to provide her food on a (slightly) grander scale. Providing a broader range of food than she was able to create in the Box, Bala's focus remains on providing quality, healthy food from simple ingredients. She promises a range of sandwiches made from naan breads, wraps utilising wholegrain chupattis, and salads, as well as her handcrafted curries.
On the night of Nutan's grand opening, her cafe is already filled with 20 or 30 people, in a space that, even without the sitar player on the floor in the corner, would comfortably accommodate perhaps a third as many. It's not long before the good-natured gathering spills out of the door and onto the street.
Above the happy clamour of people passing around plates of samosas and bhajis rises Bala's laugh. It's an invocation to enter into the spirit of her endeavour, to consume, to enjoy and to have fun.
Nutan's grand opening
The Box won't be abandoned with starting of the new venture – she will still be climbing the ladder to water the plants she grows on its roof, and its role as a community art and food project will be maintained.
Asked about her ambition and plans for the future, Bala laughs (of course) and explains her plans to create 'ultimate food heaven, right here in Edinburgh', with a focus on authentic, quality food.
And, of course, her unique brand of truly happy meals.
Nutan's, 42 Home Street, Edinburgh, EH3 9LZ, now open.
Bollywood the Coffee Box, 99a Bruntsfield Place, EH10 4HG.