| Bihar Food and Drinks |
| The staple foods in Bihar are bhat, dal, roti, tarkari and achar (rice, lentils, bread, vegetables and pickle). The traditional cooking medium is mustard oil. With the advent of Jainism and Buddhism, its followers took to a vegetarian diet, although many others preferred to eat meat. Thus slaughterhouses thrived alongside the Jain and Buddhist philosophies of ahimsa (non-violence). The people of northern Bihar rely heavily on the energy-giving sattu (powdered gram). For breakfast in Bhagalpur and Patna, people often prepare drinks with sattu, salt, chopped onions and chilly. Khichdi, a broth of rice and lentils seasoned with spices constitutes the mid-day meal for most Hindu Biharis on Saturdays. The favourite dish among Biharis is litti-chokha. Litti is made from sattu and chokha is made of mashed potatoes, tomatoes, and brinjals. Litties come in a large variety and are often roasted on hot coals. Chitba and Pitthow which are prepared basically from rice, are special foods of the Anga region. Kadhi bari is a popular favorite and consists of fried soft dumplings made of besan (gram flour) that are cooked in a spicy gravy of yoghurt and besan. Bihar also offers a large variety of sweet delicacies which, unlike those from Bengal, are mostly dry. Many of these originate in towns in the vicinity of Patna. Some dishes are of Arabic origin like keema (minced meat), murgh masallam (a chicken delicacy), naahari (broth with chunks of meat, cooked overnight). Some of the Bihari dishes like the curries and shahi tukra (a sort of French toast) are supposed to be of European descent. Biryani is a Persian world that means ¡®a dish of meat and rice in which the meat is roasted or fried.¡¯ Rice References to rice abound in a variety of sources. During the days of the Buddha, rice was the staple food. The elite consumed the superior quality of rice while the inferior quality went to the poor. Presenting an account of the different varieties of rice around the Gangetic basin, Abul Fazal said that if a single grain of each kind of rice was collected, they would fill a large vase. The Mughal chronicler described the rice cultivated in Patna as being ¡®rare and unequalled in quality¡¯. The shali rice was popular and much in demand in Europe, while Indians preferred the shahpasand and basmati variety of Patna rice. Tribal Cuisine Situated in the southern half of Bihar, Chotanagpur is home to numerous aboriginal tribes that differ from each other in their food habits and cuisine. Their general daily diet consists of boiled cereals, millet and a curry of boiled vegetables, meat, or edible roots and tubers seasoned with salt and chillies. Some of the tribal specialities of Chotanagpur are asur pittha (cake) prepared from rice, maize or the flour of mahua (a tree that yields the hallucinogenic mahua flower). The handia is an important tribal beverage that still sells on the roadsides of Chotanagpur. Most of the tribes cannot think of any occasion or function without a fairly good stock of Handia. It is made by fermenting rice with the help of biro, a medicinal cake that incorporates a dozen herbs (the manufacturers keep the ingredients a secret). The rice or millet to be fermented is first partially cooked over a fire in a handa (earthen cooking pot). Only the amount of water that the rice can absorb is added. Next, it is cooked and mixed thoroughly with powdered biro. The new pot is then placed in a cool place for about a week following which the beverage is ready. |
| Andhra |
