oh this is insane oh it's such a crush today we're in the south of India and
we're in Madurai the city is known as the street food capital of the south we have
got so many hidden gems lined up to share with you
Madurai in the south of India is the city that
never sleeps it has a nighttime street food scene like no other in India this
is our third video from Madurai and we're delving into the heart of the local food
culture we eat an evening favorite kothu parotta at a roadside street
stall that is packed with locals its frenetic, smoky and one of the most
chaotic spots we've ever filmed we drink Madurai's iconic Paruthi Paal a steaming
hot cotton seed milk from a third-generation family stall and devour
gloopy sticky halwa one of the most popular sweets in the city from a
legendary shop that sells over 250 trays a day in this India series we'll show
you some of the country's best food from unique street food to traditional
recipes you don't want to miss this series get ready for some
mouth-watering food
I'm Thomas and I'm Sheena and we're Chasing a Plate
we hope you're hungry let's eat
Madurai is known as the city that never sleeps and that's because it has a
bustling nightlife like it's just gone dark now and look at the street there
are so many people out there is so much traffic the temples stay open the shops stay
open and of course there is a ton of nighttime street eats to be found
now our first street food is actually a drink and it's a very unique drink it's
something that you can only find in Madurai and it's called Paruuthi Paal
and actually this one is perfect for me because it's supposed to be good for
coughs and colds and I've got a really bad cold at the moment so I'm hoping
that this will cure me let's go and grab a drink
maalai vanakkam
is this the paruuthi paal you know this is gonna be good for me because
I've got a cold and a cough, will help with cough yeah
okay um can we please oh can I
try some ohhhh
the gentleman has just given me some of the powder that goes into the drink so
it smells like ginger! Ginger, ginger
so it'll be perfect for me so this is the powdered
ginger that goes into the paruuthi paal it's also got cotton seeds jaggery I
believe some more spices and herbs it's a hot drink
wonderful nandri okay so the gentleman was just pulling the paruuthi paal
and he actually popped the powdered ginger into the the cup first and then
he added the liquid on top of that and it is very hot
oh and it's got a really
beautiful smell to it paruthi paal made up of a ton of different
ingredients so it's got things like Oh a cow has just shown up he's come to grab
a drink of water India is so crazy I love it here so much
so what have I got in this paruthi paal it's got cotton seed extract jaggery
which is a type of sugar there's ginger these cardamom and it's been thickened
you can see how thick it is with a rice flour so let's give this
a taste
whoa it's very spicy from the ginger and very thick quite
soothing on the throat
mmm it's quite sweet too from that jaggery and the paruthi paal is
actually sitting in this big copper pot which is boiling hot you can see the
steam coming out of it and the guy's just pulling the paruthi paal from
one cup to the next stretching it a bit and then pouring it into the glasses I
still can't believe this cow has just rocked up and has just taken its place in
front of this stall thing and you can see all the people all coming here to this stall
for a glass of the paruthi paal and we've come to this stall in particular because
it's been around for 90 years so it's been around for a really long
time doing one thing and doing it super well hope this cures me of my cold
we have come across town for our next street food and look at this little
street food stand there are so many people in here
Whoa and the smoke coming out that is stinging my eyes all the spices and chillies that
they're cooking we're having another very Madurai dish here it's called kothu
parotta whoa oh I wish you had smell-o-vision that's
insane and look at this crowd we're gonna have to fight our way through
and try and get some food up the back I think
whoa this is crazy crazy busy I have
absolutely no idea who works here where we're meant to go oh the paratha so
the bread cooking up here oh this is insane just gonna work my way in and try
and find someone who can help us out
vanakkam can we eat? Nandri you work your way through the crowd and
there are a few tables back here and a bunch of people eating on banana leaves this is nuts
this is one of the craziest street food places ever the amount of people here
vanakkam Wow
I'm in the mass of people and the sounds you can hear that crashing sound that is
this signature of this dish so over the back here the guys making the kothu
parotta and he's got these big blades that he's cutting it up with whoa it's such a
crush so over this side they're making all the parotta or the bread and over this
side they're making it up this is amazing
this is an incredible place so we've made our way through the crowd we're up
the back now waiting for one of only four tables in the place look at this out
the back they've got all the gravies cooking to go with the meal it's got
a mud floor still it's essentially just a roof on the side of the road because
it's built over a tree and so there's a tree in here holding up the roof this is
an insanely amazing street food stall it's very rare in a city to still find a
stall like this with you know mud floors massive crowds coming in a very sort of
temporary structure and that is exactly what this is it's so neat and the food that
everyone's chowing into looks so so good
we've got our portion of kothu parotta and this place is amazing it's like nowhere else
we've ever been and the food looks really good so this is the kothu
parotta they take that bread that we've seen cooking over there and being made
they take the bread and I can see egg in there I can see tomato I can see
chicken obviously a whole lot of spices gets all put onto that hot plate
together and then cut up with those big umm whoa some chicken nandri nandri okay
we thought we had some chicken gravy coming but we've actually got some beautiful
chicken cooked on the bone so full of onions I can see in there look at that
that's just gonna be collapsing off the bone seriously look how
busy it is we've been here about 20 or 30 minutes waiting for food whoa the
smell in the air is so strong it's really good it's been this busy the
whole time totally nuts unreal street food place let's get into this I can't sit
here talking about it any longer nice and dry actually very nice and dry
that's so good hmm there's a lot of the parotta or the bread in there and
that's taken on the flavors so incredibly well the bread's also cooked
with a lot of oil so the bread's not dry at all oh man that is so good
oh it's a bit tangy
it's spicy it's got a good hit of chilli bread is unreal
that is so
well-rounded oh perfect amount of salt as well
I'm getting a pepperiness unreal I'm starting to see why there's so many
people here let's grab some of this chicken that we've we've managed to
order by mistake but man I'm glad we made this mistake
oh that's delicious basically roasted
chicken mmm smoky spicy that's gonna go
perfectly oh with the kothu parotta oh they are such a good combo
this is an incredible stall this is one of these ones where you would travel
halfway around the world to eat here again because it's so memorable
it's got so much going on and the food is so good
we've come back across town for our next street food Madurai comes alive at
night so everything's open still it's about 11pm
all the shops are open and of course all
of the street food is still out actually some of the places don't even open til
about 9:00p.m. and continue right through the night we have arrived at our stop
so this place here sells a sweet called halwa and seriously every time we
walk past this place and we walk past pretty much everyday they are raging
there's always tons and tons of people buying halwa or eating halwa so let's go and grab some
vanakkam, maalai vanakkam can I please have some halwa? Halwa. Yea is that it there?
wow it looks great just one serve please
nandri ohh and it's hot too wow I've got my halwa in hand and it is
really hot in temperature very hot this lady actually was really curious
about me ordering and eating it so she's standing next to me and making
sure I'm doing it right
I think she's just saying that she's actually in Madurai for Pongol you come?
Pongal, new year, new year, yes she's come from out
of town to Madurai for Pongal because it's Tamil new year
in any case this halwa here it looks so interesting the halwa is
actually made up of ghee semolina and sugar and it is so hot to the touch it's
almost boiling it's quite blob like it reminds me of just jam or a
preserve and it's served on this beautiful leaf here I think it's a mountain ebony
mountain ebony tree leaf. What's your name? My name is Sheena. What's
your name? Nice to meet you, Happy Pongal. Happy Pongal
so I've got a whole group of ladies here
what's that?
Have you all come to Madurai for Pongal? You come here and you're eating a lot in Madurai?
people here are
very friendly in the south of India and they're always very interested I think what
I love about eating street food in India is that the Indians are so proud
of their food culture and so when you are eating they are just they're just
thrilled to see you enjoy the food so while we're here I'm just gonna oh yeah
they're my bangles, super, super, super she's saying my bangles are super
alright I'm gonna eat, bye
nice to meet you bye, they're such characters alright let's get this halwa down
that's really good I can see why it's so popular very sweet has a very gooey
texture very soft and it is hot you can see if you come closer that it's very
shiny and that's from all of the ghee in there so ghee is a type of clarified
butter so it's just got a beautiful shine to it
I love how it's not a
massive portion oh my gosh so see what I mean the nightlife here is
nuts there's so much honking we're on just off a main road so much traffic
tearing past people are out and about it's wild
the taste of the halwa is so strong in my mouth very buttery and sweet and we were just
chatting to the guys and they said that they sell a minimum of 250 trays of
that halwa a day they're very famous there are just people pouring in they've been
here for over 50 years so they've got a really reputable brand and we when we were
chatting to them they said okay you've tried the traditional ones have a taste
of these specialty ones so we've got one made with coconut oil a carrot halwa
and almond halwa and then one which is a milk based one so I wanna try this
carrot one this is very intriguing so these are served room temperature they're
not hot like that one I had before
it tastes like carrot cake super super sweet now let's get into this this almond one and
I love almond flavored stuff so it's gonna be right up my alley
this is um so these ones are not as gooey as that traditional one
it's got bit of texture to it so a little bit grainy and sweet and a very subtle almond
flavour these are going down a treat