‘Eat, pray, love: This Ramzan, sample the many flavours of iftar’- by Puneetinder Kaur Sidhu;

I was travelling and therefore missed the excellent article ‘Eat, pray, love: This Ramzan, sample the many flavours of iftar’- by Puneetinder Kaur Sidhu which appeared in the Tribune. It beautifully links the title to the Iftar food and the holy Ramzan. Please do read it if you too missed it. (https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/spectrum/eat-pray-love/774913.html)

The tittle did remind me of the film 'Eat, pray, love' and of Julia Roberts, the protagonist of the film.  

So let me do my bit and put up her photo with her billion dollar smile ...

'Andhra food, Andhra Bhawan and now Bagundi' - by K J S Chatrath

Photo source: Article from The Hindu quoted below

Andhra food- andhra bhawan and now a new place in CP https://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/food/hot-stepper/article27081574.ece

I intend trying it out on my next trip to Delhi. 

'Odisha Hotel, Saket, New Delhi' - by K J S Chatrath

A few months back, one of my Delhi based friends Abhishek Tripathy, who hails from Odisha wrote about his visit to a newly opened Odisha Hotel (restaurant) in the capital. I  soon got in touch with him to obtain details and within a few weeks I was having lunch in Odisha Hotel in Saket in New Delhi- authentic Odia food.

Mutton curry with potato was tasty indeed.

 

Green chillies are served and relished with every meal. For some reason, chillies are called 'lenka' in Odiya.

Some how I do not like closed stuffed in places and this restaurant is no exception.

Though Lord Ganesha is not the God of food but he is surely remembered at all auspiciouys occasions and business establishments pray to him for good sales and profits.

I was told by the staff that Chilka Bagda Chingri (local name for tiger prawns) prawns, for which Odisha is rightly famous, are received everyday through flight from Bhubaneswar. Since I do not take prawns, so I would not go further into how true this assertion is.

Photo source: internet

Masalas or spices are freshly ground on sil-bata for every meal. There is no use of ready made masalas in Odiya cooking.

Mahaprasad- Photo source: Wikipedia 
 

Food in Odisha has been influenced by temple cuisines, especially of the “Maha Prasada or Abadha” of Lord Jaganntha’s temple at Puri.  Lord’s Kitchen is one of the largest kitchen in the world, which can feed 25000 devotees daily. There are two types of Prasada/ Bhoga which are offered to the Lord. Abhada or Sankhudi bhoga consists of Ghee Rice, Dal, Dalma, Besara, Mahura, Saga, pita, Kanika Khechudi etc while the dry or Nisankhudi bhoga consists of all types of sweets, deserts & pithas.

For reaching the restaurant one should, on coming out of the Saket Metro, move a few metres to the left and locate this huge board. The restaurant is just three minutes walk from there.

Bon Apetit!

(Disclaimer: I was a fully paying customer in this restaurant and no discount or concession was availed of. )

(Text with inputs from the internet.)

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May I invite you to take a look at my earlier blogs going gaga over Odiya food: 

'Odia Food- one of the best in the world' by K.J.S.Chatrath;
https://indianrestaurantsworldwide.blogspot.com/2015/07/odia-food-one-of-best-in-world-by-kj.html 

 'Odisha's Chenna Poda Pitha- the best sweet in the world' by K.J.S.Chatrath

https://indianrestaurantsworldwide.blogspot.com/2015/08/odishas-chenna-poda-pitha-best-sweet-in.html

 One of the the dishes from Odia cuisine that I love most is 'Tomat Khata'- by K.J.S.Chatrath ; https://indianrestaurantsworldwide.blogspot.com/2015/09/one-of-the-dishes-from-odia-cuisine.html

'Pakoras at Konark, Odisha' - by K.J.S.Chatrath ; https://indianrestaurantsworldwide.blogspot.com/2017/07/pakoras-at-konark-odisha-by-kjschatrath.html 

'Pakhala Bhata- an Odiya dish to feel drowsy during hot summers'- K.J.S.Chatrath ;

https://indianrestaurantsworldwide.blogspot.com/2018/04/pakhala-bhata-odiya-dish-to-feel-drowsy.html 

 'Odia traditional food is one of the best in the world, believe you me' - K.J.S.Chatrath; http://indianrestaurantsworldwide.blogspot.com/2015/12/odia-traditional-food-is-one-of-best-in.html?m=0

'Badri Seth Marwadi Bhoj at Khajuraho- simply excellent' - by K J S Chatrath

Recently I spent four nights in Khajuraho visiting the magnificent temples which were constructed around 950-1050 AD. I was staying in a modest hotel which was very reasonably priced but the food served in their restaurant had 5 star prices, that I could not afford. There are plenty of eating places in Khajuraho from various shades of Indian to the Chinese, Western, Italian and what not. I consulted some auto drivers for authentic feed back about the best Indian eating place in town and they told me about 'Badri Seth Marwadi Bhoj'.

So soon I was there. It is walking distance from the entrance to the Western Group of Temples' and is around 100 metres beyond the Museum of ASITake a look above. It is a sweets shop and in the basement is the Marwadi restaurant.



I soon reached there. It is centrally located, walking distance from the entrance to the Western Group of Temples and just 100 metres from ASI's old Museum, but more about that museum later.

Soon two bowls of chutneys were place on my table.

And then came this third bowl. I tasted all the three and found those to be very good, not excessively hot. The third one reminded me how in Chile    snacks are served with exactly the same type of chutney- with the same ingrediants of chillies, onions and some vinegar. Of course, the Chilean chutney is redder as it contains tomatoes too. both in its looks and in taste. ('Sopapillas – the popular street food of Chile' by K.J.S.Chatrath ; www.fiftyplustravels.com/?p=8246) 

Chilean snack Sopapillas with sauce (chutney). Photo taken by me in Santiago de Chile in 2017.

 And then arrived the thali. Food was good looking and apetising. It was tasty with a spare use of chillies & masalas (spices). The best part was the 'Laccha Parantha', it was hot crisp and tasty - one of the best that I have ever taken. Pease-Aloo curry looked and tasted good but the peas had not been fully 'done'.

After two days I went again and ordered the same food. The menu was tyhe same and food very good, but the 'piece de resistence' - the laccha parantha was soggy and not very hot. I would suggest a greater attention to maintaining the excellent food quality in this restaurant. 

The bill came to Rs.135/- ( around 2 USD approximately) including two kinds of GSTs. Service was excellent and attentive and though generally that place does not have the practise of tipping, since I was feeling impressed by the service, I left a standard 10% for the waiter.

(Disclaimer: I was a full paying customer of the restaurant.)