Here are a few regional delicacies that you can savour at the ongoing food festival at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium
Sepu badi
In Himachal Pradesh, it is one of the main starters at any occasion like weddings or at festival time. The main ingredient of this dish is the badi, also called mukund badi. Traditionally, it was made at home; nowadays it is available in stores, too. It is made with a fine mixture of urad and chana dal, which has been soaked overnight. This mixture is then boiled in water and cut into fine pieces. Before cooking these pieces are fired. It is made in yogurt based gravy and served hot with both rice and roti.
Thalassery biryani
It is a rice-based dish blended with spices and chicken. As it is the only biryani recipe in Kerala cuisine, it can also be called Kerala biryani. The main difference between Thalassery biryani and others is that it uses only khaima/jeerakasala rice — a short-grain, thin rice which is also called biryani rice in Kerala. It is an exotic dish of Mughal origin, but this variant is an indigenous recipe of Malabar. It is a symbol of the cultural amalgamation of Mughal and Malabari cuisines. The Mughals brought the cuisine of biryani from Samarkand, and later variations of biryani developed in different parts of India. Thalassery biryani may have come to the region because of the influence of the Muslim rulers of Mysore and Arkot.
Kerala’s vellarikka kichadi
This cucumber kichadi is similar to cucumber raita with a Kerala twist....this is cucumber in coconut yogurt gravy. This dish is commonly known as pachadi but towards south Kerala this is called kichadi.
litti
Bihar’s litti is a snack food consists of balls of wheat and sattu (powdered gram or lentil) formed into balls with spices, and then filled with ghee. Although very often confused with the closely related baati, it is a completely different dish in terms of taste, texture and preparation. It may be eaten with yogurt, baigan bharta, alu bharta, and papad.
The litti are traditionally baked over a cow-dung fire but in the modern day a wok of boiling oil may be used.
Rajasthan’s kachori
Raj Kachori is a delicious chat from Rajasthan, the interesting factor being that though the name has kachori, this hardly has any kachori in it. This is a huge gol gappa sort of chat, that is filled in with delicious items in it. Essentially it is a stuffed kachori with potato and sprout filling and served with curd, chutney and sev. Apart from sprouts from moong, chole, moth can also be used.