Here’s some exciting news. I am now doing a food and travel show for a channel called News7 Tamil. The show focuses on exploring offbeat food and culture in a town/city. I feature restaurants that have been around since Adam that serve unique, but traditional food and are small hole in the wall joints. I unearth long lost recipes based on the research I do of a particular cuisine of a community and recreate it with local help in the villages. The journey has been great with a lot of travel, shooting in various villages across the South of India and ofcourse meeting foodies who share their passion for food. Our first stop was Madurai – a lovely city known for its magnificent temples and ofcourse the food it has to offer. Here’s a link to the Madurai food trail – episode 1https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3p8A3fqsMPI&list=PLMFLgBNDQhNCN1duIaIcLNMzHeGZyKUWp&index=14
This episode will feature:
- Visaalam Coffee – a coffee joint in Goripalayam, Madurai that serves freshly brewed coffee.They use brass vessels like the good old days to boil milk and to extract the coffee decoction. The owner Mr. Ashok readily agreed to show me the process behind making fresh filter coffee. The morning coffee was a super start to the madurai episode and provided all the caffeine we needed to keep us going through the day.
- Chandran Mess – this place is a meat lovers paradise. Their signature however is a ‘kola urundai’ or minced mutton ball. The minced mutton is mixed with spices and deep fried and is a sure hit at a cocktail party.
- Gobu Iyengar – this place is a good 80 years old right near the Meenakshi Amman temple. They serve a Vellaiappam or a fried dumpling made with rice and lentils. The founder of this place started this many years ago and the 3rd generation runs this place. Everything is handmade right from grinding the flour to hand roasting the spices. They serve the dumpling with a spicy chilly chutney. This place is open from 3PM-7PM only. Must eat joint
- Chinna Maankulam Naatu Kozhi Kuzhambu – Deep into the villages of Chinna Maankulam in Madurai, after months of research we got hold of Rakkamma who is known for her Naatu Kozhi Kuzhambu (country chicken gravy). She was super camera shy but her knowledge in food amazed me. We both cook up this feast in this episode and have more interesting segments/ recipes in the weeks to come.
Do watch this and make a list of places to visit if and when you head to Madurai! you can get more recipes/ foodie diaries and off beat travel info on our facebook page .
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