Madurai Food

The taste and flavor of Madurai food can never be substituted by other regions. Madurai is famous for the simple yet tasty and spicy food items. Many dishes of Tamil Nadu were introduced by Madurai people only.  Non-veg dishes are the specialty of Madurai. Mutton and Chicken are just transformed to a variety of extraordinary flavored  dishes over here!

Madurai offers a medley of dishes. Be it the parothas (a dish made from Maida-can be named thick layered chapatti), the hot biriyani and mutton, jigirthanda or filter coffee; Madurai remains in the peak when it comes to food.

Cuisine of Madurai

The cuisines range from simple to unexpected. Madurai follows a unique recipe style called Madurai Chettinad style. The flavor is different and entirely authentic.

The first and foremost dish which needs to be mentioned is “Madurai Idly”. Madurai people just hold their heads high when mentioned about this dish. It is extremely popular among the south Indians and the dish is available round the clock. The specialty of this dish is the idlies are soft like a flower. It is a simple dish. Ural dal and idly rice (a variety of rice which is opted to make idly and dosas) are soaked for few hours and grinded well. Even fenugreek is added for taste. The grinded mixture is steamed in moulds and Madurai idly is ready. Sambar and chutney are the combos for idly. The dish is so tasty that, you can toss down about 20 idlies without complain.

The next simple and exotic dish in Madurai is paper thin masala roasts. The same ingredients which are used for making softy tasty idlies are used for dosas, but, the mixture is made a little watery before tossing it into a thin paper roast. A mixture of masala is placed on it and rolled into a triangle for a hot “masala roast”. Sambar and chutney are the combos once again. One more dish called, the “rava masala roast” is the highlight of Madurai.  Rava is soaked and grinded with Ural dal and idly rice and the mixture is tossed to make the “rava masala roast”.

While idly and paper roast make up the favorable items for a morning breakfast, Keera vada, sambar vada and samosas make up the items for a delightful tea-break!

Keera vada is nothing but a dish made with paalak and dhal. Dhal is soaked in water for an hour and then grinded. Onion, coriander, ginger, chilies and paalak are chopped into small pieces and added with the grinded mixture. Now this batter is flattened into desired shapes and deep fried in cooking oil. Crispy and tasty keera vada is ready and served with coriander chutney.

The other pleasing snack is samosas. Unlike north Indian samosas, in Madurai samosas are made using onion. Thick batter is made using Maida and rolled in to thin layers. Masala mixed onions and potatoes are stuffed and folded into a triangle shaped samosas and deep fried. Coconut chutney is given as side-dish and this samosas are really too good with a cup of tea or coffee.These snacks are mostly sold in road side shops and Madurai is quite famous for these little shops which serve as living for many.

Madurai serves heavy dishes for lunch. The evergreen item for lunch is the “South Indian Thali” served in the hotels. The Thali comprises of Rice, Sambar, Rasam, Aviyal, Poriyal, Pappad, buttermilk and pickle. The combo is just enough to make up a tummy filling lunch. This is the most available vegetarian dish for lunch in Madurai. But for non-veg combos there are plenty.

Mutton Biriyani, Chicken Biriyani, Mutton Chukka, Chicken Chukka, Chicken 65, Mutton Kolaurundhai, Egg curry, prawn fries, mutton brain fry and mutton leg soup are the most wanted dishes of non-veg lovers. In fact 80 percent of Madurai people are non-vegetarians. Amongst the non-veg dishes Mutton brain fry, Mutton kolaurundhai and egg curry are the first class Madurai recipies.

Mutton brain fry is the most ordered dish in restaurants. Young lamb’s brain is rinsed well in water chopped into pieces or sometimes kept as a whole. Onions and spices are deep fried and the mutton brain is added to it. Thus delicious mouth watering “Mutton brain fry” is made.

Mutton kolaurundhai is another special dish of Madurai. It is a chettinad recipe. Minced meat is added with spices, curry leaves and onions and made into fine balls. These are deep fried in oil. These balls are an excellent side-dish for non-veg rice.
Egg curry is also an equally enjoyable dish. The specialty of Madurai egg curry is the addition of coconut milk. Boiled Egg is added to sauted onions, tomatoes and spices and cooked till the masala blends. Finally thick coconut milk is added to taste. This dish is the most wanted curry for parothas in Madurai.

Parothas

And parothas too are made in a special way here. Kothu parothas and veechu parothas are the special parothas type. Parothas are shredded into pieces and mixed with masala and egg. Veechu parothas gets its name from the fact that the parothas when made, the batter is thrown in various directions to make it longer. This dish is also a special dish in Madurai. For a goody goody lunch Madurai is the best choice.

This hot town has a hot list of hot dishes, but, it is more famous for its cool beverages. Bovonto- an Indian beverage is the most found beverage in Madurai. Apart from Bovonto, the Madurai special Jil Jigirthanda and In Hindi "Jigirthanda" means "Cool Heart". The words "Jil Jil" are added to give it a rhyming sound. The cool drink is made by adding china grass, nannari syrup and scrapes of pista to thickly condensed milk.  Vanilla is added for flavor. This drink was introduced in Madurai by Muslim settlers and later on it was known to the entire world through Madurai people only. It is really a chill drink for the summer and it reduces body heat to a certain extent. Another cool drink of Madurai is” Kalkandu Pal”. It is a drink made by adding sugar crystals to cool milk.

Thus the cuisines of Madurai attract the people around the globe. The aroma of food fills the city always!