Majestic Sweet Stall, Mannady street, Mannady

While passing through Mannady street you'll see plenty of eateries and a few sweet stalls. One of them is Majestic sweet stall. It's a small shop with a glass case featuring the usual suspects like gulab jamus of various sizes some being huge and sausage shaped. Then you'll see carrot, beetroot halwa and Dum ka roat halwa too.

The owner is usually behind the counter. He candidly told me the which items were freshest and asked me to choose among them. I was scanning the counter to see if there was anything new and a black halwa caught my eye. He said it was Puttu Arisi or Black rice Halwa! This was the first time I'm seeing this so definitely wanted to sample it. Best part was he had spare melon seeds to add on the sweet. Sweets like Dum roat have these crunchy melon seeds making it more delicious.

Got a parcel of 200 grams for around 80 bucks. It was packet in a plastic packet and sealed.

Tastewise it was very good. Sweetness was just right quite low on sugar almost naturally sweet and the smell/taste of black rice in halwa form is earthy. I'm sure it's pretty "healthy" too compared to the other sweets but the addition of ghee makes it a rich sweet. A great, different and subtle tasting halwa. Recommended!

Aatukaal Soup (Lamb bone) at Broadway Rd, Mannady

Exploring the area of Mannady has been interesting and rewarding to say the least. It has plenty of smaller joints that serve delicious non-veg food like barottas and curries. You will find lots of small restaurants serving well-cooked beef here too. This time I chanced upon some great tasting spicy mutton bone soup/aatu kaal soup for the first time in Chennai!

Location

After passing through the entire Mannady street it hits Broadway road. The first thing that caught my eye was a small crowd milling about a tiny shop right next to Hotel Excellent sipping hot broth from bowls. It was a typical hole-in-the-wall joint serving some sort of soup to the eager crowd. Although tired, every good foodie knows an enthusiastic crowd is the surest sign of yummy food so trying the Aatu kaal soup was the only way to know for sure!

This place serves ONLY Aatu Kaal (lamb bone) soup. This was my first time trying this soup so I wasn't sure if I would like it. Aatu kaal is a special soup made by boiling the bones of the lamb's limbs for long hours and of course with their own blend of spices. Apparently it is a highly nutritious soup because of the bone marrow content and is recommended for those suffering from flu and other ailments.

There was a big vessel holding broth in the middle and smaller pots with some kinds of curries. Enquiring about what's on offer, he said they serve plain Aatu kaal soup for rs 20, an add on boiled egg for rs 30, add on mutton curry with pieces for 50 rs, liver curry for 50 and finally with the actual leg bone for 60 bucks!

On the first visit I tried the soup with mutton curry. He expertly scooped up light broth from the main vessel and added a lil spicier liquid from the smaller vessel. Since I was suffering from a bout of flu, I eagerly took a first sip of the piping hot stuff and was impressed! It has a lovely smoky, spicy flavor to it with a classic masala taste that pretty much kicked the last vestiges of cold from my system! However, it was almost 10:30 pm so I asked him to pack it up so I could enjoy it back home. There was plenty of mutton in there. Also, after a while the mutton soup turned thick confirming that it was well-cooked indeed due to the presence of gelatin from the bone!

Next visit, I tried the mutton soup with leg piece and also parceled a mutton liver curry without soup. It was awkward to bite into the huge leg piece with hands but I managed it! :D Both were spicy and tasteful. A consistent place and highly recommended if you're suffering from the flu as many are this month!