Chef Gary Mehigan enjoyed these delicacies during his India visit

With a video of haleem being prepared in Hyderabad, he wrote that the dish may not look pretty to some, but it tastes incredible. “A rich stew cooked low and slow over 12 hours and consisting of mutton, wheat, spices, semolina and dal to name a few principal ingredients — it’s addictive! Once cooked and super soft, the stew is pounded with ‘ghotni’ which are large wooden mallets to achieve the smooth slightly stretchy consistency.”

Sharing the history, the chef said that haleem is an Arabic dish which was brought to India by the Nizams and is especially served as one of the first to break the fast during Ramadan. “I love lots of fried onions, maybe a sprinkling of green chilli and almonds on top to add crunch and a good squeeze of lemon. Yum…” he added.

In Hyderabad, Mehigan also tried sofiyani or white biryani which, he says, is his favourite. “Time to leave the ‘city of pearls’ Hyderabad but the memory of mountains of haleem and Biryani remains. Sofiyani or white biryani is still my favourite but I figure one last post of our mutton and chicken biryanis @b.w.c.o is worth it. Can’t beat a mountain of chicken and fluffy rice with a big spoonful of lip-numbing chicken 65 on the top,” he wrote on Instagram.

After Hyderabad, he hit the streets of Madurai in Tamil Nadu where he tried rava dosa. “Our first snack was the Special Ravai Dosai (semolina pancake) at Meenakshi Bhavan which was crisp and wonderful, simply torn into chunks and dipped in the chutneys…yum!” Mehigan wrote.

Next, he tasted mullu murungai vadai at a little food cart near Sarveswarar Temple. “Mullu Murungai Vadai are a fritter or maybe more like a poori made from rice and murungai leaves which give them their wonderful vibrant green colour. Sprinkled with pepper and chilli podi (powder) they are very addictive.”

He shared that raagi or semolina vadai was sweet and crisp and had little pieces of soft onion throughout. “Milagu or pepper vadai topped off the savoury snacking,” he said, adding that vadai was followed by kesari boli which is a soft flour dough filled with sweet kasari, made with sugar, semolina, cashews, spices and a little orange colour.

In Madurai, he also tried kola urundai, which is a mutton meatball. “After our raagi dosai and vadai, we stopped at Krishnan Mess, Theppakulam and smashed through Kola Urundai (mutton meatball) and yes I thought he said spleen ball…! I still would have eaten it, just to try something new. Apparently, they have a specialty of spleen but it wasn’t available…”

Finally, he devoured “beautifully crisp and fluffy parotta, nalli chops (goat thigh curry), nenju chops (goat ribs), a very tasty kudal varuval (goat intestine)”.

He added, “For those that are feeling a little 🤢 and wondering….there was no smell or anything funky that might put you off..! Eaten with a big fluffy piece of parotta they were really good. Nose-to-tail people….no skinless chicken breast wrapped in plastic here!”

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