The parotta we have in south is distinctly different from north Indian. And if you go for ‘Roti’ & ‘Naan’, even upscale restaurants doesn’t come half as close as in north India.
Here is a place to taste the real ‘Roti, naan & paratha‘ varieties in Madurai. It is more of a dhaba style than a restaurant, so if you look of ambience and mood this may not be the right place.
But in keeping with the Madurai style, where finding good food at roadside idli shops is the norm, the real ‘roti’ is also available in a cheap, utilitarian style ‘Punjabi restaurant’.
It is less than 2 years old, but have quite a good following among the resident & visiting north Indians. Sometimes we were the only locals amid a mix of people from north, mumbai & kolkata in this restaurant.
It has a tiny entrance on West Masi Street facing Town hall road. Between Meenakshi Amman temple and Madurai Railway Junction, there are quite a few north Indian food joints catering to the visiting pilgrims. But they are primarily serving ‘thali‘ meals.
All the north Indian eateries in Madurai were characterized by tiny entrance, dark dining hall & cramped seating arrangements. This one is (comparatively) better.
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A decade back, whenever I met a Madurai lad working in bigger cities, our chat invariably touches the topic ‘Roadside idli shops’. Without exception, all Madurai lads caught up in the job situation in metros, misses them and grow very fond while talking about them.
If you don’t know these shops:
Roadside idli (or, was it idly ?!) shops are an ubiquitous fixation in Madurai. They start business as the sun goes down and do business till 11 pm or even 12pm in some places. The fare is quite standard on all those shops. Idlies (ofcourse!), dosa, uthappam.
They also stack raw eggs and can deliver omelette, half-boiled eggs or even pour an omelette on top of a dosa while cooking (muttai dosai !).
They arrive mostly on a tri-cycle. Set up the stove, a few tables and chairs. The prices were cheap, but the taste were not. Those out-of-town lads rue this particular point. After all, such roadside shops now appear on metros as well, but you can’t guarantee the taste or cost.
They don’t have names boards or even clear boundaries. But they are an important part of Madurai’s lifestyle. They lost some of their importance now (too much traffic these days). It struck me that having no mention of these shops in this blog is not right. So here it goes.
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