Vada Paav - Desi Burger

Hola! It's my second blog post on a street food in Chennai.
The first was "murukku sandwich" (Check it out if you're into spicy hot stuff).
On my hunt for street food I saw this street stall in Thiruvanmayur selling amazing Vada Pav.
I'm so in love with it that I had to fight my laziness and write a blog right away to inform the fellas out there who haven't tried it yet.
It isn't a hardcore spicy or sweet dish.
It has a perfect blend of all tastes,  spicy sour and everything.
It's the most famous street food in Maharashtra(apparently it's birthplace).
Let's get to see how it's done.

Step one :



It starts with the paav (A type of bread)cut into two halves.
And the famous green chutney consisting mainly of green chillies and mint is applied to one side of the paav.

Step two :



The other half as you can see has the red chutney(mainly made of tomatoes and red chillies ) applied all over it. And some masala consisting of Indian spices is also put in the paav. 

Step three:



Now comes the vada, it's basically made of besan ( made of ground channa) and mashed potatoes with spices.
This is the most important ingredient that makes vada paav, vada paav.
It's the patty of this desi burger.

Step four (final one) :



The fully finished vada paav is now wrapped in a butter paper just like a shawarma.
However not all shops do it. And finally enjoy this dish with a cold coffee,  it's a killer combo. 



Where I got it :
Chennai is quite a big city and you've got zillions of shops(slightly exaggerated ) selling the same food.
I had this dish in a stall called "Mumbai Local" in Thiruvanmayur.
Please don't eat it in some crappy stall and get mad at me.
The shop you eat in does matter.

The Three Ingredient Treat, Butter Bun

A butter bun stall in Anna Nagar selling exclusively butter buns. 

So what if I said you(considering you to be sweet toothed) that I can give you a great tasting sweet which is made of just three ingredients.
 Sounds good? It tastes equally good. It's the butter bun.
Those three magical ingredients that satisfies your demonish sweet tooth are a bun, some cream butter and sugar.
Chances are you may or may not have heard of it.
If you haven't tried it yet then you're missing an amazing dish from the streets.
It has a buttery sweet taste(which my taste buds appreciate a lot) and is served hot.
And now we'll get into the details on how it's made

Step 1

The bun which is cut in the middle gets a nice coating of cream butter, on both sides.

And some sugar is added to the bun , over the layer of butter.

Step 2

And it's heated in the smoking hot pan for around a minute.

Step 3

It's turned over and some more butter is added in the top to enhance the flavor and give it that buttery texture while touching it. 

Step 4

It's flattened by pressing it and cut into four quarters

Step 5 

Final touches, a dab of cream butter, a few sprinkles of sugar, all served in an authentic banana leaf, 

Step 6 

This is how the end product looks like. And it is also served in a butter paper instead of a banana leaf.  I haven't yet tasted a sweeter thing than this in the street( except for halwa).

Vellore's , Chicken Pakkoda With Semiya

This combination is the best way to eat chicken pakodas. 

 Before we begin, let me make it clear. Chicken pakodas are more or less the same chicken 65 I made a blog about earlier(link attached : click here).

Add caption

However with that being said chicken pakodas have way more ingredients in them which basically is Indian spices.
So, yes I find them taste better than the chicken 65 here in Madurai.
Sadly it ain't available here in Madurai. Vellore as you can see is full and full of chiken pakoda shops. And these guys know how to serve it the best.
With idiypam! Try it and thank me.
 And don't use the word idiyapam there.It's called "semiya"instead.
You'll get the question "where are you from?" when you use the former.

There are endless numbers of these soft tasting idiyapams..err semiyas, in every chicken pakoda shops(which you can find in every single street)

Coming to the taste of chicken pakoda, it has a more heavier spicier taste than the traditional chicken 65.This shop I went to add 16 ingredients including sunflower seeds and many such you never knew can be used in kitchen. So you can't really overload in this, you're stomach gets full pretty soon..

This leaf needs special mention. It's actually "mandharai leaf" considered to be an alternative to the traditional banana leaf as this one preserves the spicy flavor better it is used in packing biriyani too. Chicken pakodas are served in these,take a look at the previous picture .

                                                                            THE END

Murukku Cheese Sandwich : Wait what?

Side view of the murukku cheese sandwich. 

I was in Chennai recently and when I asked the locals about the famous street foods here.

There was one thing I came up with that I've never seen or eaten anywhere else(so far) . That's the murukku cheese sandwich.

I know , the name is bizarre!!

And I'm sure most of you reading this haven't heard of it before.

As you can guess this dish is a mix of western and Indian food culture. The "murukku" in it is a typican Tamil food and the way it is served as a sandwich is pretty westernized, plus those cheese fragments add more exotic touch to it. If you ask me how it tastes , let me tell you it's wayyy tooo amazing.

It's rare. It's different. And obviously it tastes great.

The mint chutney gives you a sharp yet spicy taste(actually cheese nullifies that effect). So if you ask a person who is not used to sharply spicy dishes( pickles for example) , that person wouldn't be much impressed about it.

Lemme come again , I loove this thing sooo much.

                                                           

                                                               The making:

As you can see, there would be a first layer of murruku(not shown in pic) above which a layer of  onions and tomatoes come, some add cucumber along with it. The third layer is cheese gratings and above which the spicy mint chutney is added and the final layer of murruku is placed over it. And yes it's ready. People should try this at home and tell me how it went.

                   

The taste :

You pick the first and last murukku and eat it. Everything else will fall in place.This dish has a spicy,sour,cheesy taste. These combine to make your tastebuds thank you for eating it. As I said spice lovers would love it. And beware of cheese gratings sticking out of your mouth while eating. Duh.

PS: This post is intentionally made short.

Chicken Shawarma - Arabian Street Food

You can find this in every place they sell Shawarma. It consists of ground seasoned meat placed one over the other and heated with a heating grill which could be eiher electric or charcoal based. The cage like grill is red hot all the time and  heats up the meat.

This amazingly tasty street food is believed to have been evolved in the streets of Arabia and Jerusalem.

It is made with strips of seasoned meat stuffed inside a Roti like bread and rolled.

 The meat includes chicken , meat , lamb , beef or in some cases even mixed meat. 

In India Chicken is widely used , after all no one wants to risk their life stuffing beef (if you've heard of the term  meat ban). 

If you ask me how it tastes, trust me it's way too awesome.

 Worth trying. It costs around INR 80 per roll, and worth every penny of it. 

The dish has been "Indianized" in most of the restaurants with those Indian spices to make it more appealing to the customers.
Personally my favorite places to have shawarma here in Madurai , is house of sandwitch in K.K Nagar and Arabian Delight in Anna Nagar.
I heard the new restaurant called zaitoon in anna nagar sells one of the finest shawarmas in the city but I haven't tried it personally.  

 Whatever be it they are still as tasty as hell.
Let's get into how it's made.

Spoiler picture :

This is how it looks in the end. Yes it's a spoiler indeed. They normally don't cut it up. It was on my request they did so, so that I can show you people what's inside.

Step 1 :

Shawarma is cut into fragments from the rolling "always hot" meat , which consists of  ground chicken seasoned with Indian spices that enhance it's flavor. 

 Step 2 :

The fragmented meat is mixed with some pieces of cabbage and minced together with a
Knife.

 Step 3:

The raw bread ( which resembles roti ) is what wraps the meat after getting baked .

Step 4 :

The bread is placed in the red hot grill which apparently bakes the side exposed.

 Step 5 :

Same way the other side is exposed to the grill and is baked.

Step 6 :

The fully baked bread is placed in a butter paper , stuffed with the chicken and cabbage and finally wrapped.

Step 7 :

Garlic sauce is squirted over the bread which actually gives it a unique flavor.

Step 8 :

The mixture of chicken and cabbage is now layered over the bread which already has a layer of garlic sauce.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100004034635333

Step 9 :

Finally a third layer of garlic sauce finishes of the stuffing and the bread is ready to roll. 

Step 10 :

The stuffed shawarma bread  along with the butter paper in which it was kept is rolled over and folded at the ends. It's usually heated in the oven for around thirty seconds prior to serving. And there you have a Shawarma all ready to eat.

The "Plate"- A Picture Essay

With the best selling dish of the streets

Yes you read  that right. What you're about to see is called "plate".
It's one of the best sellers in most of the bhajji stalls.
Hopefully it's not just a plate.
It's usually made by mixing two samosas( but for some reason these guys prefer the term "somas" instead) and an egg bonda along with some channa gravy which you find steaming all the time.
Of course there are many number combinations other than the one I mentioned, but this is the most prominent one.
Other combos include something else in the place of the samosas, for example chillie bhajjies.
You ask me what has plate got to do with it.
 That's because this is apparently the only thing they sell in a plate in these shops.
 These are worth trying. They make a perfect spicy, hot snack.
You know how amazingly hot things get, when you put three hot stuff together(not what you think, you dirty minded jerk.! ) and mix them up. So yes here is how the story goes.

Step 1:

When you order a plate, they first pick up two of these(in the right). These are called samosas( somas) , they consist of  spicy onion 'n tomato rings which make them a tasty dish even alone.

Step 2:

Now he is the badboy who makes the "plate" a "plate". The key ingredient. Egg  bondas. This consists of a boiled egg in it's center. If you eat it alone don't expect it to be spicy.

Step 3:

The two mentioned above are mixed in a jar for around a minute. So their tastes get blended well.

Step 4:

This steaming(steam not shown in pic) channa gravy is now poured into the already spicy mixture which in turn makes this thing one of the best street foods out there.

Step 5:

After some further mixing it is transferred from the jar to a "plate"(satisfied?)  and some seasonings are done with some black pepper powder and onions, now you can picture how spicy it would be.

Step 6:

This is the total close up view of this dish.

But wait I'm a pure vegan :

                                            No big deal, there are vegetarian plates without the egg bondas, Which is made in a separate jar. You can ask for that.

Where to get in Madurai :

The entire stall. 

                                           Wherever you see a bhajji stall in the streets with a wheel, there is a 90 percent plus of chance they sell this. The best hand picked ones by me are in Anna Nagar near the eighty feet road opposite to a park. Another stall near K.K nagar bata showroom sell good stuff. Do try them.

Street Chicken - Smoking Hot From The Streets

RED HOT.!!

Ahh..This is one of my favorite ones.
 It's deep fried chicken.
 It is called by different names , chicken 65 , chicken pakoda ,etc depending on the person's social conditioning.
It's a bit risky one too..not all shops sell good quality fried chicken.
You can easily identify it.
 First and foremost the shop will ALWAYS have someone eating there , like the shopkeeper will never run out of customers.
Which means he sells good stuff that people eat at regular intervals.
 And the colour of the chiken too speaks volumes.
Perfect fried chicken are deep blood red and NOT BRIGHT RED.
Yes, the bright red ones just "look" good but frankly speaking , they taste like s**t.
Just keep the above two in mind before opting for chicken , plus in the end I'll introduce you to a wonderful shop where the best street chicken is sold.
It's a must try thing for all those "I love spicy stuff'" foodies.

The Recipe That Would Make Your Taste buds Praise You :

                                                                                                       

The marinated uncooked chicken

 Raw ,washed, cleaned, pieces of chicken.
 That's how it starts. Ginger garlic waste along with pinches of turmeric is mixed with the chicken. And then red chillie powder , black peeper powder , whole eggs, lemon juice are added.
 Normally a pinch of red colour powder is added at this stage to attract customers.
 The meat is mixed thoroughly and let to marinate for around one and a half an hour.
The raw meat is ready. It looks like the one in the above picture.
Now all that the shopkeeper does is that , he half cooks around 1 kg at a time by frying it in oil for a short interval of time and sets it in display.
Once you go to the shop and ask for a plate of fried chicken , he takes around 100 grams from the half cooked chicken and fries it deeply in oil until it becomes fully cooked and ready to eat.
The chicken is garnished with onions , lemon slices and served.

The half cooked ones kept in display are the main attraction of this street food , who can resist such a display combined with an amazing spicy aroma.?

The Taste :

The ready to eat finished product.

                    It has a spicy , masala filled taste. It has the notes of ginger and garlic. Lemon is slightly felt. Overall it tastes completely incredible. Trust me it's just incredible. And worth trying.

Combinations :

An inside view of the street shop

                          In Madurai people eat it with onion rings.
I was in Vellore where they ate this with an amazing combo , the "idiyapam" .
I know it sounds a bit weird , "Chicken 65 + Idiyapam" , I felt the same way when I saw peeps eating it in the streets so I just went out and tried it. It was just completely amazing. The soft tasteless idiyapam does wonders with the harder spicy chicken.

Places To get This :
                                 In Madurai there is a shop in Anna nagar , it's near the new branch of arun bakery and is placed in front of an unused park.
 I'm a fan of that guy's chicken. He sells the best.
 But if you're a chickenholic and  simply love chicken , then I suggest you to make a trip to Vellore. That's paradise for any chicken lover.
There are street chicken shops in huge numbers over there like three to four in a single street.
They have a good variety too , chicken pakodas, chicken chops , chicken kebabs , chicken chips...the list goes on.Good luck trying.