Street Food: Parupu Vadai

While driving down to Pondicherry on a weekend, we made a pit-stop at my friend's favourite street food haunt - you get the best parupu vadas with home made chutney, and a lovely glass of tea (chai) to wash it down. I brushed it off as pure drama and it is street food - it can only be as good anyways! But I was proved wrong.

I bow to these humble guys on the Pondy highway who made the best parupu vadas I have ever tasted in my life. You see the outside of the vada should be a lovely red crisp, and the inside should be well cooked and soft. To obtain this perfect texture, the oil has to be heated to the right temperature, and the vadas should be fried at that exact temperature and removed at the right time. It is all about timing plus the right portion of ingredients to make the dough with the right taste.

The boy's mother makes home made chutney which is supposed to be simply delicious and fresh, but I just missed it that day. I was heart broken. You have to appreciate the dish with the right combo, but hey, the vadas where good to go anyways! And I would also recommend having tea in the usual glass the locals have rather than the paper cup which completely removes the joy of tasting a richly-rightly brewed tea in all its splendour and aroma! It completely baffles me when the street chai is made to such perfection and at home it never tastes the same, no matter how much I try.

Image used is a representative image.