Bihar on your plate

There was a time when, the moment someone mentioned Bihari cuisine, we would associate it with litti-chokha. However, over the last few years, we have broadened our horizons. Now, Delhi offers a wide variety of Bihari food including Champaran meat, mustard fish, aloo chokha, and, of course, litti-chokha.

Bihar’s cuisine made its presence felt when the city began embracing the food of the people who had over the years become a significant part of its lifeline. Suddenly, small carts and makeshift shacks could be seen in different parts of the city, selling sattu ka sherbet and litti-chokha.

The cuisine from the region offers a lot more than that and with rich variations. The Maithil Brahmin cuisine, for instance, features various kinds of fish dishes, including Rohu cooked in mustard gravy. You will find sub-regional offerings at the two Bihar State houses in the city — Bihar Niwas and Bihar Bhawan. The restaurant in Bihar Niwas is run by Potbelly, a popular restaurant. On the menu are all kinds of dishes — from fish chokha and machchi biryani to gol mirch chicken, dal pitti and besan sabji.

The restaurant or canteen at the other State house is more modest: it has a limited menu, but is air-conditioned, small and neat, with comfortable chairs. I decided to focus on the snacks and asked for aloo chops (₹45 for six), kala channa ghugni (₹75), a plate of bhuna mutton with teen kona paratha (₹255), and, of course, some litti-chokha (₹95).

The food was rather hot, but I enjoyed it, especially the flattened aloo chop and the kala channa, which had been cooked with onion, tomato, coriander, ginger and garlic. The litti — baked wheat balls filled with sattu — was served with a runny potato chokha, which had a strong flavour of mustard oil that I quite relished. However, the mutton didn’t work for me, the pieces were a bit too hard.

The menu card describes the meat as Champaran mutton, which has become a buzzword in Delhi these days. Many places across the city offer this dish. Just the other day, I saw a small eatery called Champaran Meat Shop in the main market at Mayur Vihar Phase 2 and a Champaran Meat House in Laxmi Nagar. An outlet called Masala Queen in Indirapuram prepares the meat with black pepper and desiccated coconut. I had some delicious Champaran meat (also called Ahuna meat) from a delivery outlet called The Chhaunk a while ago as well. Now, even Gulati — the much-loved restaurant popular for offering so-called Punjabi and Mughlai dishes in the Pandara Road Market— has Champaran meat on the menu.

I still remember the delightful taste of Bihar’s mutton curry that I had at a food contest-cum-festival in the capital several years ago. The meat gravy was light, yet full of flavour. A big fat garlic bulb had been left to simmer in the gravy, and by the time the meat was ready, it had absorbed all the spices and tasted heavenly when mashed with the rice and meat. Bihar Bhawan’s meat, alas, did not wield the same kind of magic.

But the canteen is worth a visit. The food is value for money.

Bihar Bhawan is at 27, Kautilya Marg; 12.30pm to 10.30pm; For enquiries call 011-23017368