Our tongues crave for a break from the monotony of regular menu as much as our eyes look for a change in what we see daily. A culinary trip to Udaipur in Rajasthan can be the best treat to the taste buds. The Udaipur cuisine is lavish and light, rich and simple, spicy and soothing, sweet and snacky at the same time. Associated with the age-old culinary culture in the royal households of Rajasthan, the Udaipur cuisine boasts the dishes whose popularity has spiraled out of Rajasthan and spread all over India. Indian Eagle handpicks some of the best Rajasthani dishes from the cuisine of Udaipur.
Dal-baati-chorma
Is it an exaggeration to call Dal-baati-chorma the king of Rajasthani food? A big ‘NO”. After all, popularity matters. Favorite with the natives of Udaipur, Dal-baati-chorma tops the menu of traditional Rajasthani dishes. The dish is combined of three items – the dal that is boiled, cooked, spiced lentils; the baati that is round-shaped piece of baked, salted, ghee-dipped whole wheat; and chorma made by grinding deep-fried wheat balls, mixed with ground sugar. The flavor and taste of chorma are accentuated with dried fruits and nuts. The dish evolved from the aridity of Rajasthan where hard-working nomadic tribes needed some hardy food to develop resilience to extreme weather. Today, it is a staple food in the households of Udaipur and the rest of the state. A must find in the menu of festivals and weddings, dal-baati-chorma is the culinary essence of Rajasthan.
Kadhi pakoda
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Another popular vegetarian dish in the regular cuisine of Rajasthan is Kadhi Pakoda. The Rajasthani menu contains as many light dishes as heavy dishes. Kadhi Pakoda is gram flour or chickpea flour curry with balls of the same material. Curd is an essential component of this item. Sauce or cream adds to the flavor. Snacky in taste, Kadhi Pakoda is best enjoyed with rice and rotis. With the people of the Marwari community migrating from Rajasthan to the rest of the country, Kadhi Pakoda has been absorbed into the cuisines of the other states. But, the taste of Kadhi Pakoda in Udaipur is unmatched in any other part of the country.
Gatta Curry or Gatte ki Sabzi
Udaipur has a fetish for the dishes made of gram flour. The Udaipur cuisine boasts a variety of gram flour curries whose taste will leave you licking your fingers. One such dish is Gatta Curry. Gram floor is mixed with spice and lukewarm water to make dough which is cut into small pieces. Each piece is shaped into a small ball. The balls are dipped into a spicy, tangy curry made of curd. Cream or malai is frittered all over the curry for extra flavor.
Papad Curry or Papad ki Sabzi
The art of cooking something very spicy and tasty using simple ingredients is to be learnt in Udaipur. Papad Curry which you may not find in the menu of local culinary festivals or traditional weddings in Rajasthan is a staple dish in the day-to-day life of the people of Udaipur. If you get luckily invited to a household in Udaipur City, accept the invitation and let your taste buds try something new. Pepper-spiced papads are broken into pieces which are dipped into a tomato curry.
Udaipur is accessible from Jaipur International Airport, and Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi. IndianEagle.com books the cheapest flight for you to take a culinary tour of Udaipur in Rajasthan.