It is made of red ants and ant eggs.
Photographs: Courtesy, Gordon Ramsay/YouTube
Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay tasted a chutney made of red ants in Bastar during his visit to India, and fell in love with it instantly.
He calls it the chutney of the Dhuruvas in a video uploaded on his YouTube page.
Dhuruva is a tribe from Bastar in Chhatisgarh known for its sophisticated cooking and amazing chutney.
People of the tribe prepared their famous Chapda chutney from red ants and any eggs for the chef and he just couldn't stop raving about it.
The spice quotient of the chutney threw the chef off guard and the first word to slip out of his mouth after he tasted the chutney was, 'wow'.
'I am never going to taste any other chutney in my life,' he said.
'It is like an ant caviar!' he exclaimed. The chutney is made of red chillies, salt and ginger paired with red ants and ant eggs.
The chef loved the chutney so much that he decided to add it to his menu.
The traditional chutney is not only healthy, but also keeps diseases at bay.
Another dish that found a mention in his menu is Chhatisgarh's Dona Pudga, a dish of chicken seasoned with basic spices. It is wrapped in a leaf and later roasted over a fire.
Gordon travelled across India for a documentary on Indian food when he visited Bastar on the suggestion of his assistant Sarah.
In the 12 minutes he dedicated to these dishes in the documentary, Ramsay termed Chapda Chutney as the world's best chutney and called both the dishes as healthy.
Ramsay travelled in the Naxal-prone areas of Darba's Manjhipal on a bullet motorcycle and spent three days and two nights there.
During his stay, he learned about the red ant chutney. He got completely floored by it when he tasted with the local Mahua alcoholic beverage.
(With inputs from ANI)
