We have covered a few well know places, but the actual experience of local food in Madurai is found on the streets. This part is entirely dedicated to the gems of Madurai. To explore the unknown we were on a food tour organized by the well known Foodies day out team.

We can’t thank them enough for the experience. As a traveler you might find places serving good food, but its the entire local experience that plays a major part and the team of foodies day out make sure you have the best. Whenever in Madurai , a food tour with them is highly recommended.

Foodies day out organizes food tours all across the city , they have different tours from which you can choose from. It includes breakfast tours, evening snack tours , specialties etc. Everything right from the hotel pick up to the drop is taken care of, all you’ve got to do is enjoy the food and experience. You may reach them out on Facebook, Instagram and trip advisor.

Lets get started. We have lots of things to cover. I hope you have a good time going through this.

We had a breakfast tour, the first stop was the famous Murugan Idli shop. A really good start to the day. We had their Ghee podi idli , vada and the small onion butter uttapam. The idlis are different from what we get in Hyderabad, these are a little spongy and chewy. The best part is that they provide four different chutneys and sambar as accompaniments, the uttapam as well was pretty good.

Then we visited the Meenakshi temple , followed by a legendary coffee shop. This was the best coffee in Madurai. It was sunny and extremely humid, so the next stop was something to cool the body. We then had elaneer sharbath, its coconut water with coconut flesh and nannari syrup. Was another great one.

We then left to the hotel , relaxed for a while before we moved out again. Our lunch was a t a restaurant , post that we were picked up from the hotel by a member of the Foodies day out team.

We then headed out on a evening tour covering quite a lot.

The first stop was at the Prema Vilas , known for their tirunelveli lala mittai or we just called it a halwa, this was addictive. The halwa is always served warm in a leaf , only drawback is its overly sweet, otherwise you can gulp down quite a lot.

Stop number 2 was the Bharma Idiyaappa shop , although its not from that region this one has immense popularity amongst the locals. They just have 2 variants , plain rice flour and ragi. They are served with a tomato chutney (savory) or with sweetened coconut milk, or just grated coconut and grain sugar. Both the versions were good in their own way.

We next moved to the famous Ashok mutton stall , not many pictures but really good food. The special kari ceylon parota had a filling of mutton and egg. Its thick and heavy. Their regular parotas as well with the mutton chukka and the basic curries were extremely good.

Then on our way we found a street vendor selling something interesting. It was heart of a coconut tree. The tree is cut when it is about to collapse or die All the external layers are removed and the center is slice and sold. Its similar to a tender coconut and a little tart.We also moved to a small cart selling some puris which are made with a special green leaf and its only available at that spot. They also had onion and millet variants as well. Also we had Adhirasam, a sweet similar to the Ariselu of Andhra pradesh , shaped differently without sesame.

Post this we headed for dinner at Konar mess, known for its kari dosa. Its something really different. They make a small dosa, add a mix and then scramble it like a omelette, this later is topped with the mutton. This was extremely good. We also had a mutton chest , this was the most tender meat in the entire trip but lacked flavour. The egg dosa as well was a good one.

Last stop was Jigarthanda , its a hindi word which translates to a cool heart. Its a drink made with condensed milk, almon resin and a hand churned ice cream. Its similar to a basundi.

Overall this was the best part of the entire trip , all thanks to the Foodies day out team. Lets move ahead to the final part. Please note these posts aren’t day wise.

Team; Foodies day out Madurai