Dishes

Rampuri taar kormaNon-vegetarianMain

Mutton in a reduced yoghurt and browned-onion gravy cooked until it threads. Served with sheermal or a plain roti; the test of the cook is the consistency, not the spicing.

Where to try: Rampur's old-city kitchens, and at weddings — it is a wedding dish before it is a restaurant one.

Adrak ka halwaVegetarianSweet

Ginger grated, squeezed, cooked down with khoya, ghee and sugar until dark and pungent — a winter sweet unique to Rampur, made nowhere else in India in this form.

Shab degNon-vegetarianMain

Turnips and meat sealed in a pot and cooked all night, so the turnip turns dark and dense. Made in winter; the same dish exists in Kashmir and nowhere between.

Doodhiya biryaniNon-vegetarianMain

A pale Rampuri biryani cooked with milk, with almost no chilli and a great deal of restraint — a court dish that reads as under-seasoned until you have had it twice.

Khade masale ka keemaNon-vegetarianMain

Minced meat cooked with whole spices left in, sharp with ginger and green chilli.

Moradabadi dalVegetarianStreet food

Yellow moong dal cooked thin, poured over a heap of raw onion, coriander, green chilli, lemon and a dry masala, and eaten with a spoon from a leaf bowl on the street. Moradabad's own dish and a local obsession.

Where to try: Any evening cart in Moradabad; the older ones sell nothing else.

Bareilly ki nihari and kebabNon-vegetarianBreakfast

The old-city nihari trade, sold from before dawn with kulcha, and a seekh kebab tradition that runs to a coarser grind than Lucknow's.

Sewaiyan and sheer khurmaVegetarianSweet

Fine vermicelli in reduced milk with dates and nuts, made in enormous quantity at Eid — the region supplies dried sewai to much of north India.

Bedmi, kachori and jalebiVegetarianBreakfast

The plain's standard morning meal, identical to the Doab's and eaten just as early.

Gur ki roti and gannay ka rasVegetarianEveryday

Fresh jaggery worked into bread, and cane juice pressed at the roadside through the crushing season.

Tharu bagiya and jhingriVegetarian and non-vegetarianMain

Steamed rice-flour dumplings with a lentil or fish filling, and small river fish cooked whole with wild herbs — the terai kitchen, which uses no wheat and very little dairy.

Amroha and Bijnor mangoesVegetarianFruit

Dussehri, Langra and Chausa from orchards along the Ganga, sold from late June — the region competes with Malihabad and does not always lose.