I can’t overstate how much I fell in love with India during the six weeks I spent there in 2018. The three weeks I spent in the country in February of that year was a wonderful introduction to Indian culture and cuisine, and the 18 days I spent touring even more cities in November was a beautiful, immersive experience where I dove even deeper into this gorgeous country’s rich history, fascinating culture, and divine cuisine. I’m so glad I got to take that lifechanging trip with my good travel buddy Sam from Samuel & Audrey!
On our second night in Ahmedabad, our new friend Rutu and her brother Haardm took us on an incredible non-veg, nighttime street food tour of the Bhatiyar Gali area of the city that blew our minds! This place is noisy and chaotic, but I love it! Come along with us as we explore the world of non-veg Gujarati street food!
While 95% of the residents of the state of Gujarat are vegetarians, there are still places in Ahmedabad that cater to the non-veg crowd there, and the street known as Bhatiyar Gali is one of them. There, you’ll find cooks and vendors butchering animals and serving them up right on the street! I couldn’t wait to start eating!
We began our food tour at ZK Fry Centre, where we got two chicken dishes (chicken pesto and chicken fry) and two mutton dishes (mutton masala and mutton chaap) along with some rotis and raw onions.
I started with the mutton chaap, which was tender and contained lots of spices, and was bathed in a rich and flavorful sauce. I had to eat around the bone, though. It wasn’t hot, but the amount of spices made my lips tingle! Next was the chicken pesto, which looked similar to butter chicken. This dish was hot, and I could taste lots of onion and coriander. It was delicious, like butter chicken on steroids! Next, I went with the mutton masala. It was really good, and had a rich and oily gravy, but contained small bones that I had to be careful of. Then it was time for the chicken fry, which was fantastically spiced and tasted like rotisserie chicken! Then it was Sam’s turn to try the chicken pesto!
As we left ZK Fry Centre, I watched a guy kill and butcher a chicken right in front of me! One of the things about Bhatiyar Gali is that the food here is extremely fresh. It’s literally as fresh as you can get!
Our next stop was Akbari Hotel, where we got some mutton leg, a few chicken dishes (one in white gravy, some chicken tandoori, and Chicken Hyderabadi) and some prawns with chilies!
I started with the prawns, which came in a rich sauce and had so many different flavors that hit me all at once! It was slightly spicy and so amazing! The mutton leg was almost pure fat and I had to suck the marrow out of the bone. The boneless chicken in the white gravy was incredibly tender and the gravy reminded me of a light white wine sauce. The Chicken Hyderabadi was cooked in green chilies and wasn’t hot at first, but the heat intensifies over time. The chicken itself was nice and juicy. And the tandoori chicken had some burnt edges and had a really nice, roasted flavor. I couldn’t taste the curd, but it was still the best chicken leg I’ve ever had in my life! Then Sam tried the tandoori chicken. The prawns were the star of the night for me, followed by the chicken pesto!
We wrapped up our night with some sweet paan, which contained some fruit, marmalade, and caramel. It was a nice palette cleanser, but was way too much to chew, so Sam and I actually had to spit some of it out!
What an amazing night! I hope you enjoyed this video of our non-veg, nighttime street food tour of Bhatiyar Gali! If you did, please give it a thumbs up and leave me a comment below. Also, please subscribe to my channel and click the notification bell so you don’t miss any of my upcoming food and travel content!
What I really want to eat, right there.
Oh man, these prawns are going to be an explosion of flavors.
I didn't know prawns can taste so amazing.
Good evening everyone, this is David Hoffman from David's Been Here in Ahmedabad, Gujarat,
India and with my good friend Ritu from You Eat Me Insane and we're on this street called?
Bhatiyar Gali.
Bhatiyar Gali and this place is famous for its non-veg.
As you may know, here in Gujarat, 95% of the people are veg.
The other 5% are non-veg and this street literally specializes in non-veg.
As you walk the street, you see people butchering the animals.
Basically, as you can see right there, you have organs right there,
you have the chickens right there and behind us, you're cooking it, right?
So, the food is super fresh.
We're going to go to two places tonight.
We're starting right here, right?
And what's this place called?
Zatke Fry.
Zatke Fry and we're going to try a few dishes here, right?
Chicken, mutton?
Yes, both.
Both, okay.
Fantastic and then we're going to go to another place right nearby
and after that, we're going to take a quick stroll and show you how amazing this place is
and how busting it is.
As you can see, the fire is behind us and I feel the heat in my face.
The fire is hot, bro.
Oh, it's hot, it's hot.
It's hot in the box.
Alright guys, let's start our tour.
Alright, I'm so excited.
This is my first time trying non-veg in Ahmedabad.
We have two chicken dishes, two mutton dishes and some rotis?
Yes.
Okay, so let's quickly go through.
What do we have?
This is chicken pesto.
It's boneless.
Okay, it's basically the gravy of chicken with spices, tomato and onion gravy and lots of spices.
So it's chicken tikka with onion spices?
Yes.
We have mutton masala.
It's cooked in a thick gravy as you can see.
Masala, they won't tell you.
This is mutton chaat.
Mutton chaat?
Yeah.
Wow.
That just looks like my dish right there.
So basically, they've cut the mutton into small pieces.
Okay.
They fried it in a masala.
Okay.
So that is it basically.
You have chicken fry here and then they have fried it in the masala.
Okay.
Well guys, I just want to let you guys know when you come here,
you're going to hear all these noises and smell all these things.
It is pretty chaotic.
I'm in love with it though.
This is a real experience.
So how do I do it?
Do I take it off to the plate or do I just go in?
All right.
So let me break it up.
I'll get a piece.
Oh, I just love this.
There's bones here, right?
A few bones, yeah.
Oh, break off the mutton there.
So I got the mutton super tender.
I love the spices.
It's a very rich sauce.
Got a little mutton.
Oh, the spice is hitting me hard.
Is it hot?
You know what?
It's not too hot.
It's just a lot of spices.
Actually, my liver is tingling.
Oh, amazing.
I want to go with things that don't have bones.
This is boneless.
Boneless.
Oh, right there.
It actually looks like butter chicken.
Is it similar?
No.
No?
It's a bit sweet, a bit buttery.
It's just too oily.
It has the same like feeling of butter chicken.
Tomato.
And onions.
Tomato curd.
Oh my god, it's hot.
Onions, coriander.
Just love the heat.
This is the button.
Mutton masala.
I just don't want bones, but...
Girl, you know when you eat goat, you have to go through the bones.
Don't want bones.
I was nervous for a second.
Scared me.
Chicken fry.
Is that boneless?
No.
Okay, I got a lot.
It's very juicy.
Very juicy.
Oh, that's amazing.
It tastes like rotisserie chicken.
Fantastic spices.
It's just too good.
Wow.
He loves it.
It's like butter chicken on steroids.
Spices, oil.
Oh, it's hot.
David, you like chicken pesto.
So do I.
This is the best.
Best of the best.
This is like a fiery version of butter chicken.
Like just look at the intensity of the red.
It's like it came out of a volcano or something.
Oh my gosh.
So I've grabbed a big piece of chicken.
I've got lots of red sauce.
I'm taking it for more of a swim.
And just one gigantic bite.
So buttery.
So full of flavors.
And the chicken is a bit smoky and tender too.
This just ticks off all of the boxes of deliciousness.
You gotta try this dish if you come here.
Okay, so that food here at ZK Fry was insanely good.
That chicken pesto was my favorite thing.
It was so hot.
It was like really, it was butter chicken on steroids to the next level.
Oh, the best thing I've had non-veg in Ahmedabad.
Actually, the first time I ate it non-veg, but it's cool.
This place is right here.
ZK Fry Center, as you see.
And right in front over here, we have a guy that's basically,
he just killed a chicken.
He's plucking it.
He's about to gut, I mean, he's about to like dissect the thing.
And then right here we have, you know, organs.
We have, you know, leg, wings.
Wow, he just killed it.
Let me see this thing.
The whole body, huh?
The whole body.
Wow, there we go.
There we go.
And there you go.
That's how fresh the chicken is.
The guy kills it.
The guy in front buys it.
And over here, as you can see, there's more chicken.
More chicken, chicken, chicken.
Lots of chicken.
There's also a lot of mutton around here.
But as you can see right now, it's just mad chicken.
Chicken organs.
Wow, it's like a never-ending chicken feast right here.
As you can see, this is like wild.
This is probably the freshest chicken I've ever eaten in my life.
And right here, oh, it hit me in the face.
And the next place we're eating at is here.
It's Akbadi Hotel.
We're going to Akbadi Hotel.
And here's Sam filming.
Our second stop is Akbadi Hotel.
It's literally like five doors down from the other place.
And we have five dishes here.
The unique thing here is we have a few chicken dishes.
But then we also have prawns.
These prawns look just like, wow, stellar prawns.
Okay, so tell me what they are.
Okay, so this is mutton.
But you only have the leg.
Just mutton leg?
It looks very fatty and gelatin.
Yes.
Okay, and it's cooked.
There's no tomato.
It's cooked in onions and spices.
Perfect.
Okay, we have chicken white.
It's cooked in white gravy.
No idea.
They won't tell you.
Okay, this is chicken tandoori.
That's the best.
Yes, it's dipped in curd.
It's dipped after or before?
Before.
Okay.
Wow.
And then it's...
So it's like basically infused in there, curd infused.
Wow.
They always mix curd and ghee and all that stuff.
All right, so let's get this one.
What is this one?
Chicken Hyderabadi.
It's cooked in green chillies.
And green and then palak spinach.
Palak spinach, perfect.
And that's it, and spices.
So it's spinach with chicken.
Yes.
And then this one's prawns.
Yeah.
With chillies.
Exactly.
You have prawns masala.
You have prawns different masala.
All right, let's stop talking.
Let's start doing.
Bam, right here.
Oh, you're gonna just throw it all over?
I'm sorry, but I gotta start with what I really want to eat.
Right there.
Oh, man.
These prawns are gonna be an explosion of flavors.
It tastes so amazing.
Wow, such a rich sauce.
The curry just hits you with so many different flavors.
It's a little spicy because of chillies, but it's pretty mild.
Wow.
Amazing, dude.
That was amazing.
That's mutton.
Do I just grab the leg?
This, I'm just gonna just eat it like this?
Yeah, you can.
Okay, so a mutton leg is basically just fat, does it?
And here.
Yes.
It's like you're playing the trumpet.
Yeah, there's bones as well?
It's boneless.
Oh, it's boneless.
Okay, perfect.
The boneless, you go straight up to it, perfect.
Wow, I'm very excited for this one.
There are no chillies in it.
The white chicken.
Very tender.
Yeah, you know what it feels like?
It feels like almost like a white wine sauce.
That's what it sort of tastes like.
I guess I'll have to just get some more of this, just the gravy here.
Oh, and is that algae?
Very light sauce.
If you're not into spices, that'll be for you.
Put it to the side.
So I'm gonna have to break it, right?
Yes.
I'll just get a piece of that right there.
Separate it, perfect.
Dip this in.
Chillies.
Okay, green chillies.
It's not so spicy.
Tastes spinach throughout and actually intensifies a little nice juicy chicken.
Oh wow, I'm really in love with all these chickens.
I mean, I'll say so far that prawn is like number one.
Number one of the night.
The big boy.
Roasted, a little burnt.
Oh, this is so good.
And you see all the chicken there?
Oh my god, so fresh.
Oh, I love the spices.
And the amazing thing is I don't taste the curd, but it's infused in here.
So I guess it just makes it a little fattier, right?
Oh my god.
This is like the most delicious chicken leg I've ever had in my life.
And it's a huge chicken leg.
Is that you saw it right before I came here.
You saw the chickens.
I won't lie, as an animal lover, it was a little sad for me to see like
them actually take it out and butcher it.
But you know, this is the circle of life and we all have to eat.
Oh my god.
David, if there's one non-veg dish I'd recommend people try when they come to India,
it's tandoori chicken.
It's one of the first things I've ever had while having Indian cuisine.
I mean just look at this thing.
It's a marvel to the eyes.
It's like got a black smoky crispiness to it.
It's red in color.
You just tear off a piece of the chicken like this.
Look at this.
Beautiful.
You've got the white flesh.
You've got the black smokiness and the red color.
Just pop it in your mouth man.
Mmmmm.
The smoky flavor overwhelms you.
There's a crispiness on the outside of the chicken.
Tenderness on the inside.
Like this chicken done to perfection guys.
That was such an incredible meal.
I can't even tell you how amazing it was.
These two places, literally we just left one place and we're back at the other place.
And yeah, I mean the prawns, the prawns, the prawns, the prawns.
That was the star of the night.
The prawns there and then here the chicken pesto.
All right, so we're finishing up with a little pan.
Oh my god.
It looks like they put some marmalade, some caramel.
Sweet pan.
Yeah, I know it's sweet pan.
We couldn't find any chai unfortunately.
Here we go.
Cheers.
No, one go.
One go.
One go?
No, no.
More.
Oh my god.
He's eating the nostrils.
The hard thing is to keep chewing.
Something hit me very hard there.
It's hard to finish it.
There's so much in the mouth.
Wow.
What an amazing non-veg feast.
It was so good.
It's literally this tiny strip.
There's butchers, there's some restaurants.
The two best are the ones we visited.
Like I said before, my two favorite dishes was the chicken pesto which is super spicy
and the delicious prawns.
They were so freaking amazing.
We had to end it with a little palate cleanser.
Me and Sam got stuck on that.
We couldn't even finish it.
We had to spit out a little bit but it's all good.
Guys, I want to thank you so much for watching.
I want to thank you.
You Eat Me Insane for taking us on another amazing food tour here in Ahmedabad, Gujarat,
India.
Gotta thank Sam behind the camera.
Thank you.
Subscribe to both of them.
Bam, bam, bam.
Like this video.
Just a comment, I mean.
Subscribe to my channel and I'll see you on more food and travel adventures throughout
Incredible India.
Peace.
