Dishes

Litti-chokhaVegetarianMain

Wheat balls stuffed with sattu, ajwain, pickle masala and mustard oil, baked in embers, cracked open, drowned in ghee and eaten with a mash of roasted brinjal, tomato and potato. The best version is cooked over cow-dung cakes and eaten with the fingers, standing up.

Where to try: Roadside stalls anywhere between Patna and Gaya; the ones with a dung-cake fire, not a gas ring.

Sattu ka sharbat and sattu parathaVegetarianEveryday

Roasted gram flour whisked into water with black salt, lemon and roasted cumin — the summer drink of the whole region — or stuffed into a paratha, called makuni, with pickle masala and onion.

Dal pithaVegetarianMain

Rice-flour dumplings filled with spiced chana dal and steamed, then sometimes fried — the region's own dumpling, eaten as a meal rather than a snack.

Ghugni and churaVegetarianBreakfast

Whole black gram or peas cooked with ginger and served with flattened rice. Standard morning food across Magadh, and the default offering to a visitor.

Kadhi-bariVegetarianMain

Gram-flour dumplings in a sour, panch-phoran-tempered curd gravy — the festive vegetarian dish.

Chana ghugni with tilkutVegetarianWinter

Eaten together at Makar Sankranti, when tilkut is at its freshest and every household has a supply.

Silao khajaVegetarianSweet

A multi-layered fried pastry from the village of Silao near Nalanda, soaked in syrup, dry on the outside and shattering when bitten. It holds a geographical indication, and the village makes little else.

Where to try: Silao, on the Nalanda–Rajgir road, where the shops line both sides.

Gaya ka tilkutVegetarianSweet

Sesame and jaggery pounded to a flaky disc, made only in the cold months. Ramna and Tekari Road in Gaya are where it is beaten, and the sound of the mallets is the town's winter.

Where to try: The tilkut lanes of Gaya, from November.

Maner ka ladduVegetarianSweet

A dark, coarse-grained gram-flour laddu made at Maner near the Sone confluence, sold to pilgrims visiting the dargah and along the highway.

Thekua and khurmaVegetarianSweet

Wheat and jaggery moulded and deep fried — the principal Chhath offering, made in quantity over two days.

Machh-bhaat of the river villagesNon-vegetarianMain

River fish in a thin mustard gravy with rice, along the Ganga, Sone and Punpun — less central here than in Mithila, and mostly a riverside rather than a regional food.

Champaran-style handi muttonNon-vegetarianMain

Mutton sealed in a clay pot with mustard oil, garlic and whole spice and cooked over a slow fire — a north Bihar dish that has taken over the region's meat kitchens in the last two decades.

Anarsa and laiVegetarianSweet

Rice-flour and jaggery discs rolled in sesame, and puffed-rice balls bound with syrup, made at festivals.