Kalyan, the Meat Chef

I came across several signboards outside restaurants or shops with the following text “Bannur Mutton Biriyani” or “Bannur Mutton Available Here” when I was travelling in Bengaluru couple of weeks ago. 

I had asked a few locals including the cab drivers about Bannur Mutton and the replies were almost always the same “it is expensive”!

When I met up with Kalyan Gopalkrishna of @karnivore.kitchen I not only got to know more about Bannur mutton but also got to taste some fantastic meat dishes cooked by him. 

He told me that “Bannur” is a fast way of saying “Bandur” which is a small village about 100 km from Bengaluru. The fertile area and the altitude of this area, most importantly the natural diet for these Bannur sheep all attributes to the superior quality of the meat.

Kalyan told me that in Karnataka this mutton is sometimes compared to the Japanese marbled textured, Wagyu beef. In India, the Bannur mutton is considered as expensive. These sheep have more than average muscle-to-fat-ratio and the thin layer of fat is evenly distributed over their bodies and therefore the meat becomes tender so fast when cooked and taste flavourful!
I would call Kalyan, The Meat Chef.  More about him in my next post.