व्यंजन

Litti-chokhaशाकाहारीMain

Sattu-stuffed wheat balls baked in embers, drowned in ghee, eaten with a mash of roasted brinjal, tomato and potato dressed with raw mustard oil. In Bhojpur it is as likely to be eaten with mutton as by itself.

Sattu ka sharbat and makuni rotiशाकाहारीEveryday

Roasted gram flour drunk with black salt and lemon, or stuffed into a paratha with pickle masala. The region's answer to a working summer.

Banarasi kachori-sabzi with jalebiशाकाहारीBreakfast

A fried, hing-scented kachori with a thin potato curry and a jalebi, eaten before seven in the morning, standing in a lane. The city's most durable institution after the ghats.

कहाँ चखें: Kachori Gali near Vishwanath, and the Ram Bhandar and Chachi ki Dukan counters.

Tamatar chaat and chena dahi vadaशाकाहारीSnack

Banaras chaat, which is sweeter and softer than Delhi's — crushed tomato cooked down with spice and served in a leaf bowl, and curd-soaked cheese dumplings.

MalaiyoशाकाहारीDessert

Winter milk foam set under dew and skimmed at dawn, sold from head-carried trays in the old city and gone by mid-morning. Made only between November and February.

कहाँ चखें: The lanes around Kachori Gali on a winter morning.

Champaran-style ahuna muttonमांसाहारीMain

Mutton sealed in a clay handi with mustard oil, garlic and whole spice, cooked slowly and served from the pot. A north Bihar dish that now defines meat-eating across the whole region.

Ghugni with churaशाकाहारीBreakfast

Black gram or peas cooked with ginger and served over flattened rice — the standard village morning meal.

Dal-pitha and puaशाकाहारीFestival

Steamed lentil-stuffed rice dumplings, and fried sweet pancakes made at festivals and at Chhath.

ThekuaशाकाहारीSweet

Moulded wheat-and-jaggery biscuit fried in ghee — the principal Chhath offering, and the thing the diaspora most often asks visiting relatives to bring.

Launglata and Banarasi sweetsशाकाहारीSweet

A khoya-filled pastry sealed with a clove and steeped in syrup, alongside the city's rabri, malai gilori and lal peda.

Machh-bhaat and diara fishमांसाहारीMain

River fish in a thin mustard gravy, eaten on both banks of the Ganga; the diara villages fish and farm the same land in different seasons.

Bafauri and bariशाकाहारीMain

Steamed gram-flour dumplings, plain or in a gravy, made when there is nothing else in the house.

Banarasi thandaiशाकाहारीBeverage

Almond, fennel, pepper and rose ground into cold milk, with a bhang variant sold openly at licensed shops and drunk at Holi and Shivratri.