Bihari cuisine facts for kids
Bihari cuisine is the yummy food from the eastern Indian state of Bihar. You can also find it in places where people from Bihar have moved to, like Jharkhand, parts of Uttar Pradesh, Bangladesh, Nepal, and even faraway countries like Mauritius, South Africa, and the Caribbean.
Bihari food is a lot like other foods from North India and East India. It changes a lot with the seasons! In summer, people enjoy cool foods like watermelon and drinks made from wood-apple fruit. In winter, they eat more dry foods made with sesame and poppy seeds.
One super famous Bihari dish is litti chokha. It's a baked wheat-flour ball filled with sattu (roasted chickpea flour) and spices. It's served with baigan bharta, which is mashed roasted eggplant and tomatoes. People in Bihar also love dairy foods like dahi (yogurt), spiced buttermilk (called mattha), ghee, and lassi.
Bihar has many tasty meat dishes, especially chicken and mutton. In North Bihar, near rivers like the Ganges, fish dishes are very popular. A common meat dish is meat saalan, a curry made with mutton or goat and potatoes. Dalpuri is another favorite, which is bread filled with cooked and mashed gram pulses.
For sweets, Malpua is a hit! It's a pancake-like sweet made with flour, milk, bananas, nuts, and sugar. Another famous sweet is balushahi, and khaja is a flaky sweet often eaten at weddings. Thekua, a sweet made with ghee and jaggery, is special during the Chhath festival.
Contents
What is a Bihari Thali?
A thali is like a full meal served on one plate. In Bihar, the foods in a thali change with the seasons, usually every few months. But some things are always there: rice, roti (flatbread), achar (pickle), chatni (sauce), different kinds of dal (lentils), and milk products.
When cooking, Bihari chefs often use vegetable oil or mustard oil. They also use a special mix of "five spices" called panch phoron. These spices are fennel seed, black mustard seed, fenugreek seed, cumin seed, and nigella seed. Bihari cooking often involves light frying.
A unique tradition is "smoked food." This means using smoked red chili to give food a strong, smoky smell and taste. Smoked chili is used in chokhaa (mashed vegetables) and even in some chutneys.
Traditional Bihari Dishes
- Kadhi bari - These are soft, fried dumplings made from chickpea flour. They are cooked in a spicy sauce made with yogurt and chickpea flour. They taste great with plain rice.
- Khichdi - This is a mix of rice, lentils, and different vegetables. Everything is steamed together, giving it a special taste. It's often topped with ghee.
- Ghugni - This dish is made from black grams that are soaked in water and then cooked in mustard oil. Spices are added to make a thick, flavorful gravy.
- Pittha - This is a type of dumpling that can be either salty or sweet. The outside is made of soft rice flour. It can be filled with lentil paste or with poppy seeds and jaggery (a type of unrefined sugar). They are usually steamed.
- Sattu - This is powdered roasted gram, which gives you lots of energy! It's usually mixed with water or milk. Sometimes, sattu mixed with spices is used to fill chapattis (flatbreads), which are called makuni roti.
- Dhuska - This is a deep-fried snack made from a mix of powdered rice and ghee, with some salt.
- Litti - This is made by mixing roasted gram powder with chopped onions, green chilies, lemon juice, and coriander leaves. This mix is put inside dough and then either grilled over coal or deep-fried. It's best eaten with ghee, dahi, chokha, and baigan bharta.
Regional Flavors
- Bhojpuri cuisine - This food style comes from the Bhojpuri people in parts of India and Nepal. Bhojpuri foods are usually mild, meaning they don't use too many strong spices, but you can make them spicier if you like! This food is perfect for the active lifestyle of people who work in the fields.
- Maithil cuisine (also called Mithila cuisine) - This is the traditional cooking style of the Maithils in the Mithila region of India and Nepal. It includes many rice, wheat, fish, and meat dishes, using various spices and herbs. This cuisine has special foods for different events like weddings, parties, and festivals.
- Magahi cuisine - This food style is common among the Magahi people in the Magadh region of Bihar. Magahi people love to celebrate festivals with special foods, so their dishes often look like the offerings given to gods.
Appetizers
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Breads
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- Parauntha
- Aalu parauntha (potato-filled)
- Sattu paratha (sattu-filled)
- Piyaz parauntha (onion-filled)
- Posta-dana kaa paratha (poppy seed-filled)
- Dal puri
- Makuni
- Makai ke roti
- Naan
- Dosti Poori
- Phuka
- Tandoori Roti
Vegetarian Dishes
Bihari vegetarian food is similar to Bengali food, but with less influence from Central Asia. Most dishes are steamed with a quick frying of spices called a chaunk. Turmeric is often added to almost every dish. Dishes using garam masala are less common.
- Nenua: Sponge Gourd steamed with a chaunk of fenugreek seeds and chilies. Chickpeas or chickpea lentils are often added too.
- Lauki: Bottle Gourd steamed with a chaunk of cumin seeds and chilies, or panchphoran. Chickpea lentils are usually added.
- Aravi in Sarson Masala
- Alu-Baigan: Potato and Brinjal steamed with a chaunk of panchphoran. Other seasonal vegetables like bottle gourd, peas, beans, spinach, or tomatoes can also be added.
- Kofta
- Bharwan karela
- Vegetarian korma - Subziyon ka Panchranga Korma
- Paalak paneer
- Shaahi paneer
Saags (Greens)
Non-Vegetarian Dishes
Bihari non-vegetarian cooking has a special taste. Even famous writers like Maulana Abul Kalam Azad found it very delicious! Different kinds of kebabs, mutton dishes, and dishes made from various birds have a unique flavor. Biharis are well-known for their Bihari kebabs. These are traditionally made from mutton and are eaten with roti, paratha, or boiled rice. The Champaran area is famous for a grilled mutton dish called taash. Nowadays, you can even find Bihari kebabs wrapped in a paratha as "Bihari kebab rolls" in fast food places.
Snacks
- Churra - This is flattened rice, often served with creamy yogurt and sugar or jaggery. In winter, it's lightly baked and eaten with a thick, spicy pea and onion dish.
- Chokha - Mashed vegetables mixed with mustard oil and spices.
- Bajka
- Bhurta
- Bhunjia - Sautéed vegetables cooked in spices, usually with potatoes. It has no gravy and goes well with rice, lentils, or chapatti.
- Samosa
- Kachori
- Samosa chaat - A mix of samosa, sweet chutney, yogurt, crunchy snacks, flattened rice, onions, and other toppings.
- Pappdi Chat - A common snack found in many homes.
- Bhunja - Often eaten in the evening.
- Dal Pitthi - A Bihari dish usually eaten for breakfast or in the evening with tea. Dal means lentils, and pitthi means dumplings made of whole wheat.
Sweets
Bihar has many different traditional sweets. Unlike sweets from some other parts of India, which are often soaked in sugar syrup and wet, most Bihari sweets are dry.
- Khaja - This flaky sweet is similar to the Greek baklava. Famous khaja comes from Silao in Nalanda.
- Chhena - Similar to rasgulla.
- Tilkut - Made from sesame seeds and only available in winter. It's a thick, hard sugar base covered in sesame seeds, then flattened into a round shape. The tilkut from Gaya is very famous.
- Malpua
- Rabri
- Kheer - A special type of kheer called Rasia is made during the Chhath festival.
- Thekua
- Khajur
- Laktho
- Churma
- Balushahi - Famous ones are from Harnaut.
- Anarasa - A traditional sweet from the Mithila region.
- Motichoor ka Ladoo - Famous ones are from Maner.
- Khabauni
- Gulab jamun
- Kala jamun - Munger, Bhagalpur, and Banka Districts are known for Kala Jamun.
- Pantua - This is like kala jamun but has an elongated shape.
- Peda - Famous ones are from Kesaria.
- Khurma - Found only in southwest Bihar.
- Parwal ki mithai - Made from pointed gourd. The fruit is cleaned, sliced, and boiled, then filled with khoyya (condensed milk and dry fruits) and soaked in warm sugar syrup.
- Khubi ka lai - Famous ones are from Barh.
- Belgrami
- Padokkia
- Murki - Famous ones are from Koelwar.
- Pirikya/gujiya - A flaky pastry filled with sweet khoya (condensed milk solids) and dry fruits. It's famous in Basopatti.
- Khurchan - Made of layers of scraped condensed milk. You can find it in Patna city.
- Postaa-dana kaa Halwa - A sweet pudding made from poppy seeds. It's usually prepared in winter.
- Kasar - A dry sweet made from coarsely ground rice during the Chhath festival.
- Lai - There are many types of lai in Bihar, including lai from Gaya. It's often made from ram dana seeds mixed with khoya and sugar to form a disk-shaped sweet.
- Dangra ka Tilkut - Similar to tilkut, but made with jaggery instead of sugar. The one from Dangra village in Gaya is famous.
- Paan peda - A heart-shaped peda with a unique taste, famous from Mohiuddin Nagar.
- Gaja - A cubical sweet made from flour.
- Makhana kheer - A kheer made with makhana (fox nuts or lotus flower seeds). It's known for its health benefits and is not too sweet.
