Gulab Jamun Dosa & 6 Other Unique (and Fun) Foods To Try When in Chennai

Featured image courtesy (L): Instagram: Foodozers

As a tourist setting foot in Chennai for the first time, it’s easy to become bamboozled by the city’s food scene. I, too, was a victim of the same fate. Blame the score of eateries for this. But even as I let the thrill of ticking a fair few off my list settle in, conversations with the locals made me realise I couldn’t get complacent. 

Turns out, far off the tourist trail, there’s a whole new world of flavour that awaits. So, if you’re on a shoestring budget and up for some experimentation, here’s what you should be adding to your Chennai menu.  

1. Gulab jamun dosa 

With slow fusion kicking into gear — think butter chicken pizza and thandai tiramisu (a fusion dish that combines the goodness of the Indian milk drink with an Italian classic) — the latest to join the bandwagon is the dosa (savoury Indian crepe). 

In a fusion snack that pushes the envelope, the dosa is being paired with the gulab jamun (an Indian dessert made of milk solids) and food blogger Ashwin Kumar applauds the delicious dichotomy of contrasts. At Dosa Halt in Egmore, you can try this and 99 other fusion varieties of dosatoo. These include pizza dosa, Japan paneer (cottage cheese) dosa, and (brace yourself) ice cream dosa. 

2. Bangalore-style benne masala dosa 

In the monsoons, food blogger Mahalakshmi’s favourite haunt is Tiffin Shastra in Chennai’s Anna Nagar area. Here, she sips filter coffee — a culinary lifeline in the city — as her order is readied: a Bangalore-style benne masala dosa (crisp buttery dosa with a delicious filling).

“Unlike the usual masala dosa, this version has a crisp yet buttery texture, filled with a spiced potato mash and served with three types of chutneys and a perfectly balanced sambar (lentil-based vegetable stew),” she explains. A hint of ghee perfectly cracks the interludes, making the experience “absolutely unforgettable” for Mahalakshmi. 

She adds, “The cosy ambience with the sound of rain in the background makes this a memory I cherish deeply.” If your appetite allows, order the ghee podi masala dosa (a dosa that is paired with a popular South Indian spice blend) and the medu dosa, which, we hear vies for counter space with the benne dosa. 

3. Gilli biryani 

At the Taj Coromandel, you’re called to refine your culinary palate with the eponymous gilli biryani. When food critic Ameeta Agnihotri visited the grand restaurant and placed her order — “one gilli biryani, please” — she was regaled with the tale of how the biryani came to be by chef Naveen Prasad, who’d been a trainee at the Taj during the 1990s.

The story goes that it all began when youngsters, who would come to the Taj after partying at the discos, placed an order for biryani.  

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“Many times it [the biryani] would not last past dinner time. But, Taj employees are trained to never say ‘no’ if they can help it,” chef Naveen told Ameeta. “So, leaping into rescue mode, trainee chefs doing night shifts would mix roganjosh (a Kashmiri dish of curried meat) with some pilau rice (a flavourful aromatic rice), layer it up and call it biryani.” 

As the chef trainees were very new to the trade and the ratios were haphazard, the resultant biryani would be a little geeli (wet). This soon evolved into gilli biryani. This dish is chef Vijaya Raghavan’s favourite, and he calls it the most unique he’s had in the city. 

4. Food at sabha canteens 

During the Tamil month of Margazhi (which falls during the Gregorian December and January), the streets of Chennai come alive in music and dance. Those who come to watch the fanfare flock to the sabha canteens for their delicious meals — unembellished and bursting at the seams with flavour. 

At the Sri Sasthalaya Catering’s canteen, the feast includes idiyappam(South Indian snack made of rice flour) with thengai paal coconut milk drink, and kumbakonam kadappa (a side dish made with lentils, potatoes, and coconut paste). Their Kalyana Saapaadu includes 20 odd dishes, including cheppankizhangu roast (a snack made of taro root), vazhaipoo vadai (fried snack made with banana flower), and pineapple rasam (tangy spiced soup). 

Local Naru Radhakrishnan loves the meals for their plucky flavours. He particularly enjoys the feast out at the Parthasarathy Sabha Canteen, where the tables become a tapestry of colour with bhajjis (Indian fritters), kuzhi paniyaram (crispy lentil dumplings), thattu idli (steamed rice cakes), potato bonda (deep-fried mashed potatoes), and halwas (Indian sweet dish).  

5. Murukku sandwich 

If you trace the murukku’s social life across India, you’ll see it’s quite the traveller. In its birthplace, in the South, it is known as murukku (a deep-fried snack with concentric circles), while in the parlance of the West and North of India, it has become chakli. 

At ‘Crunchy and Munchy’ in Chennai’s TN Nagar, the snack features in one of the best-selling menu items — a corn mixture is put into canopies and topped with a vibrant layer of green sauce. The mix is blanketed with grated cheese. Murukkus are added as the final topping. Enjoy!

6. Jigarthanda 

In 1977, in Madurai, a gentleman, P Sheik Meeran, from Aaraampannai Village near Tirunelveli, started a small shop in Madurai. “My father first sold ice cream made of milk, sugar, and vanilla essence for a living. He then started selling jigarthanda on a push cart,” the website of Famous Jigarthanda reads. The drink was lauded for its inventive take on sherbet; it was a blend of milk, almond pisin, basundi (sweet condensed milk), ice cubes and sherbet. 

“The special variety has more khoya (thickened milk) than the ordinary one,” the family shares, adding that they continue to prepare their own sherbet. “This is the secret to our success,” the website reads.  

7. Burmese atho 

Chennai’s George Town is home to a boomtown of flavour in the form of the Burma Bazaar. The market was started by Burmese refugees in the 1960s; displaced from their homes, they started trading in the area. In time, their cuisines became assimilated into Chennai gastronomy. 

At Burma Bazaar, flavour seeps out of every eatery; but the poster child of the cuisine is atho (rice noodles sautéed with cabbage, onions, tamarind, chilli powder, and lemon juice and then hand-tossed in garlic oil). We hear the mohinga (soup noodles) are quite popular too, as is the khowsuey (a Burmese dish similar to atho but with the addition of coconut milk).

Edited by Khushi Arora

Sources 

Kitchen Adventures 1: Taj Coromandel's Gilli Biryani by Fascinating Tales, Published on 8 August 2020.