In November of 2018, I went on the most epic trip of my life: a 21-day-long trip to India, a country I fell in love with the first time I visited just eleven months earlier. This time, I went with my good friend Sam, and we set out to explore seven cities in different parts of the country.
The second city of our trip, Hyderabad, is well known all over the world for its amazing cuisine, so the two of us decided to visit one of the city’s most popular restaurants, Ulavacharu, to try some of the best southern Indian food in Hyderabad!
Ulavacharu is an authentic traditional cuisine restaurant that has won over millions of hearts of visitors from all over the world. This popular restaurant operates with the goal of reinventing long-forgotten recipes; bringing authentic, unique, and original dishes together under one roof; and keeping ancient dishes that were prepared by their ancestors alive for current and future generations.
First up was a creamy and buttery complimentary Indian sweet that contained caramel. It was very sweet and I only ate one!
Our first main dish was the Korameenu Tandoori Fish, which is made with masala and other spices and served alongside a mint chutney. It wasn’t as soft or flaky as a regular fish and actually reminded me of mutton, texture-wise, but it was fantastic! The smoky tandoori flavor paired really well with the mint of the chutney. If you order this, just be sure to look out for stray bones or spines that may not be removed during the fileting process!
Next up was Bangla Kodi, which is small nuggets of chicken masala wrapped in a potato. It was really good! Crunchy and not too spicy, just a little peppery, and reminded me of popcorn chicken wrapped in a crunchy potato.
Next, we had the Royyala Vepudu, which are river prawns with masala, cilantro, and a spicy green chili. It was very spicy, chewy, had a wonderful texture, and I loved it! They were the best prawns I’ve ever had!
Next was the bamboo chicken, one of the most exotic dishes I’ve ever seen! The raw chicken is cooked inside a sealed piece of bamboo and sprinkled with masala spices. It gave the chicken a strong bamboo taste, and was outstanding! Sam loved it, too!
Our next dish was Kona Seema Kodi Vepudu, a spicy fried chicken. Visually, it reminded me of Nashville fried chicken. It was super tender and slightly spicy, except for one bite where I caught a lot of spice!
To cool down my mouth, I went with some rose milk, a super sweet milk with cashews, pistachios, and almonds that has a lot of rose flavor infused in it. This was definitely one of my favorite rose-infused drinks I’ve ever had!
Our next dish was Pandu Marayapaka, a type of vegetable kebab with a flavorful and tangy sauce that reminded me of orange chicken. It was fantastic!
Next, I tried Ulavacharu’s signature dish, Raju Gari Kodi Pulao, a steamed rice dish that contains vegetables, tender chunks of chicken, spices, and a hard-boiled and deep-fried egg on top. It was very moist and reminded me of a risotto or a paella. I tried it with two different chutneys and a red, peppery sauce, and all three were very unique and so good!
Up next was the Matka Mamsam Pulao, another rice dish that was served in a clay pot. This one contained mutton (lamb) and before I could even taste it, the aroma of the meat with all of the spices had my mouth watering. It was the butteriest, most tender lamb I’ve ever had!
Sam tried the next dish, Gadwal Kodi Pulao, a chicken-based rice dish with tomatoes that sits on top of an omelet! It wasn’t as spicy as the other pulaos, and was lighter, and the omelet was a nice addition.
The last dish of the night was Guthi Vankaya Pulao, a veg pulao with an eggplant on top. The sauce was very light and wasn’t spicy at all. I loved the eggplant, and the sauce mixed with the rice was out of this world!
If you enjoyed this exotic dive into south Indian cuisine, please give this video a thumbs up and leave me a comment below! And please subscribe to my channel if you haven’t already so you don’t miss out on any of my upcoming food and travel content!
I want to get very adventurous because this is exotic southern Indian cuisine.
These are the best prawns I've ever had. My friend, it was incredible. Thank you.
Good evening everyone, this is David Hoffman from David's Bin here in Hyderabad, India
and tonight I'm here at Ullavachurru. This place specializes in exotic southern Indian cuisine.
I cannot wait to try this because I haven't tried anything on this menu. We're trying like 12-13
different things. Let's go inside and eat some delicious food. Follow me.
Okay, so as soon as you walk in, they hand you this complimentary sweet. It's called
Mysupur. It looks like a, it's like a little brick right here. It feels like a little gooey,
like a fudge, right? Yeah.
It's like caramel. Yeah, yeah.
Caramel. Look at this. It just breaks apart like a little rock.
It's very sweet, isn't it? The texture is like extremely creamy inside, like buttery. Yeah, yeah.
Oh, it's fantastic but I don't think I want to start with sweets.
So here we go. The first thing we're trying is a tandoori fish. It's a marrow fish
and basically it's made with some masala and some other spices. This thing looks incredible. I've
never had this before. A fish tandoori, tandoori fish. And then we're also going to try it with
some mint chutney. Okay, so you got to be careful. You have to get in here and see if there's any
bones. You know, I personally can't stand spines. Good thing it was mostly deboned. Yeah, thank you.
Okay, here we go. Oh, wow. It's funny because it actually has a texture like butter.
I don't know. That's really random but it has that texture. It's not as soft as a
regular fish, like a sea bass, flounder. It has a lot of spices here and the way they cook it
in the tandoori, it has a smoky taste to it and it goes really good with the mint.
I personally never like eating fish fillets because of the bones
but if they do it like this and they do it perfectly, I'm game.
Yeah, you got to chew. You got to be really careful. Yeah, tissue paper. Okay, it's fine.
My audience loves me, right? Yeah. So, right here we have bangla kuri and basically it's chicken
wrapped in a potato. For me, it was almost like a popcorn chicken with a lot of masala all
over and then the potato wrap. I've never seen it before and the way you do it is just go in.
Pretty good. Yeah. Not spicy, a little crunchy. I love the cilantro. There is some
pepper flakes on it. I really like this. This is something you can share with a family.
They're almost like, what do you say, it's almost like popcorn chicken but obviously
with the potato wrap. Pretty cool, unique. I like it, my friend. Oh, yeah. So, this is a river prawn
with masala. It looks incredible. The only problem is I don't know how to say it because it's really
long. It's like... Yeah, it's difficult. It's difficult. And so, as you can see, you got some cilantro.
You have this super spicy green chili there. What I'm going to do is I'm going to get in here.
Oh, this looks incredible. Look at this. All right, here we go.
Oh, yeah. This is amazing. It's getting a little spicy. There's always spice. It's
always spice. It doesn't fail, especially in southern Indian cuisine. They're always having
some spice. Very chewy. I love the texture. Dude, it's getting really hot. I want to get
very adventurous because this is exotic southern Indian cuisine.
I'm going to burn my taste buds right now. Oh, like super hot.
These are the best prawns I've ever had. My friend, this is incredible. Thank you. Our next dish is one
of the most exotic dishes I've ever seen. Basically, it's bamboo chicken. They cook
raw chicken inside of bamboo, then they pour it out here, and then they put some masala spices on top.
Now, let's dive in. Wow. Oh my god, every dish is blowing me away. Let's see. Here we go.
This is crazy. It has the taste of bamboo straight up. Feels like I'm eating a plant
mixed with chicken and that masala. It's almost like in the States, it would be like green curry.
This is so amazing. Wow. This is the best dish. The best dish in the house.
It keeps getting better and better and better and better.
And better. So I'm going to be trying the bamboo chicken as well.
I've got to say this is a wonderful dish. Wow.
So flavorful. So smoky. Chicken is so tender. It's like, where have you been all my life?
So good. It has such complex flavors. I mean, when you first put it in your mouth,
it tastes a lot of different spices, but as you roll it around on your tongue,
it becomes even more richer and more flavorful. This is one of the best chicken dishes I've had
in a very long time. Here we have Koli Beppuru. This is a spicy fried chicken. It looks amazing.
It actually reminds me of hot Nashville chicken. You know, that fried chicken. Yeah. Oh, look at
that. Oh, there's some bones in here. I'm going to get a few because I just love this. I think
it's actually like little chicken wings here. There is bones here. Little bones. That's one
thing I noticed here in India. There's always chicken comes with bones. Here we go. Super
tender. A little spicy. Not too spicy. Not as spicy as the other thing we had. The prawns.
Yeah. That was super spicy. That was the spiciest thing so far I'd say. Mmm. I love it. A lot of this
red masala. I guess that is like the spice. Oh. Just break it up. So it is not like popcorn chicken.
You know it just has bones in it. But it is pretty dang good. Mmm. Oh there is a spice. There.
You can take some water. Yeah, there is a spice. That is really spicy huh? I took down like
three chilies in there. Hahaha. All at one time. I mean. Our food is spicy. Yeah, yeah. I mean
Southern Indian food is always spicy no? I love it. For me spicy food is the best food. I like
I have a problem having food that doesn't have any spice. It is like. There is nothing worse
than that. It is too bland. That is why I love Mexico. Mexico is like spice, spice, spice, spice.
Yep. Hahaha. I am in heaven. I am really in heaven. The restaurant is amazing. Okay because
that chicken was so hot my mouth is like on fire right now. It is like all numb.
They provided us with rose milk. Rose milk. Mmm. Oh. Mmm. Super sweet. You can taste the rose man.
It is amazing. Mmm. I have actually had rose like water and in multiple places actually. And this
has to be one of my favorites because it is like a frothy milk and they also put some cashews and
almond on top. Oh it is pistachio too. Oh wow. Oh it is cooling down. Oh my gosh. My mouth is
cooling down. Thank God. Mmm. Just what we need. Wow. That chicken was so so hot. Like it like
it took a while to hit me. I know it wouldn't go away. It was lingering. Lingering. Oh. Alright
now I can continue to my next meal. Okay so the next dish we have is Pandu Medet Kebab. And it is
like a vegetable kebab. Like tiny kebabs. Vegetables. What is this? Okay. I think that is
good my friend. It is a lot. We are having like 10 dishes. I'm exploding already. Hey hey hey. No
photography. Just kidding. 1000 Rupee. Okay here we go. Mmm. You know it almost tastes like
orange chicken. Like Chinese orange chicken. Oh wow. Mmm. It is fantastic. Wow. It has got a nice
glaze on the outside. Nice glaze. It is orangey glaze. Very like tangy. Oh. And then it is like
condensed vegetables basically on this little stick. Mmm. Oh. Another hit. Our next dish is
Raji Garikoli Palao. Their signature dish. And this is basically a steamed palao. There is a
hard boiled egg which was then deep fried on top. And what else is in here? Some chicken?
Chicken? Vegetables? Yes. Chicken. Oh you're giving me the egg. Yeah. You get the egg bro.
You better eat it all. I was just kidding. Oh wow. It is a chicken. Vegetables. This actually
looks like a risotto. The way it is like very moist. My friend that is a good tip. You can't
eat this. Guys we have been eating so much this is ridiculous. As you can see. Oh. You know it
is like a risotto. Steaming hot. Oh my god. Big chunks of chicken. And then I mean look at this
piece of egg. Come on guys. Look at this. It is very moist. Feels like a risotto or it could be
like a paella from Valencia. Look at that. Herbs. Let me get a chunk of chicken right here. Alright
I am going to have to let this thing sit for a second because it is boiling. Oh my god. Wow.
Moist. The chicken is super soft. Oh my god. This is so unique. I have never had a palau actually.
I thought it was all about biryanis but palau is another type of rice dish. Very different.
It is like imagine having fried rice and then having risotto. That is what it is compared to.
And it is like a risotto. Very similar. This was steamed. So you have like chutneys.
Boom. And which one is this? This is gongura chutney. Gongura chutney. So you are trying it with gongura chutney.
I don't know what that is man. I have no idea. Some vegetable I guess.
Okay. I am going to try the other chutney now. Yes. Michika salam chutney.
That one really reminds me of a. It is like a sweet. Oh but now there is a spice in this.
Oh my god. Sweet and spicy. Sweet and spicy. It is like a sweet and sour almost.
Oh we have another thing to try here. Pulau acaru. Pulau acaru. This is a very thick like pasty sauce.
No smoky. Lots of peppers in that sauce.
This is awesome but I am too full guys. Next dish. Matika mutton palau. So this is a lamb palau
that is cooked in this clay pot. Wow. And like I told you guys before my favorite thing is lamb.
Lamb and goat. That is okay my friend. I have eaten way too much. Here we have it. Oh wow.
The aroma just hits you the second you go. Oh you can smell the lamb. Smell the lamb. Oh it is fantastic.
I love the spices they cooked it with too. Just I can smell so many different flavors.
Oh it is going to be amazing. Here we go.
That is the butteriest lamb I've ever had. Wow. Wow. They must have cooked it at 5,000 degrees
or something bro because things fell apart so quick. Wow. Oh man. That is like next level tender.
Next level. Alright next up I'm trying catwal gurui palau. And this is a chicken based palau.
I think it has tomato kind of rice and the most fascinating feature of all is that it has an
omelette base at the very bottom. So I'm going to try to take a bite with the omelette. Breaking
off a piece of the omelette here. Putting some rice on top of it. Check that out guys. Omelette
plus rice. That is the winning combo.
It is really interesting having it with the omelette because we haven't tried that before.
This one isn't as strong of a palau. It is not as spicy
but it has it is kind of lighter which is nice because we've been having some very spicy ones.
I do like it and the omelette is such a nice addition. It is a pretty cool
palau to try here. Our last dish here is guti wankaya palau. This is the owner's mother's
recipe. It's a veg palau. This is like an eggplant actually on top right? That's eggplant.
Looks like eggplant. Yeah it looks like it. And then rice. You only live once right YOLO? YOLO.
This is YOLO meal. This is really the ultimate YOLO meal. Okay here we go.
Not spicy at all. I love the eggplant in here. Oh wow. And the best part about it is you mix
the sauce with the rice. Oh let's go to town with this.
It's so delicious. It's creamy. Man that sauce. Can you send me this to America?
Sure definitely. Please please. I need some. So we had one of the best meals of all time.
Exotic southern Indian dishes. I've never tried. I mean none of these dishes I've never tried.
Insane. Some of them were very spicy. Some of them were creamy. They were all delicious. My
number one was definitely the bamboo chicken. Number two is probably the prawns because they
were spicy. The fish was amazing. This palau is the best palau out of all of them. And that is
exotic southern Indian food at Ula Bacharu. You have to visit this place when you come to Hyderabad.
If you don't come here and you don't try this food, you did not visit southern India.
I hope you guys love this video. Please give me a thumbs up. Leave a comment below. Subscribe to
Sam and Audrey and subscribe to my channel. I'll see you on the next Indian travel adventure with
David. It's been here.
