One dal or subzi will never do !
One dal or subzi will never do !
Just like an illiterate African tribal fails to realize the true value of the jewels in his backyard, so also we have failed to realize that our cuisine is one of the best in the world!
Only when you live outside the state for long periods and do not have a loving Oriya wife or mother to cook and serve your favourite dishes, you will start missing your good home made food !
If you guys who have worked outside the state have any experience of getting an impromptu invitation to dinner by a non-Oriya, I am sure you must have wrinkled up your nose at the limited dishes served to you! No offence meant to fellow Indians though! It is just that we cannot do without variety in our meals!
I think it all started off with the culinary indulgence of Lord Jagannath who also loves good food! Oriyas spend a lot of time and money on the food part of our lives! Just walk unannounced into the house of the average citizen and you will be amazed to find a whole variety of dishes in the kitchen. No Oriya housewife will dare to cook one subzi or dal for her husband and go back to her Sas and bohu serial! There shall be at least 3-4 dishes apart from the staple rice! Otherwise, dear husband and the demanding kids will throw a fit!
Our mornings normally start with a hunt for the best greens, fish or mutton. A common morning sight in cities is that of men going around haats with shopping bags slung all over their bikes or scooters! Doesn’t matter if he is late for office by 15 –20 minutes!
A close friend who did time in Mumbai told me that his neighbours always used to wonder if guests were coming to dinner, when they saw him returning from the market weighed down with shopping bags bulging with vegetables! They were astonished when he explained that this was just for 3 days of use for his tiny family of three!
I am an unabashed fan of Oriya food! And I am bedazzled by the mind boggling variety! I guess we have more than 50 varieties of sweets alone and each one makes me salivate! tasty! Everybody loves our Chennapoda and whenever friends visit the state they insist on packing some of this stuff for their kids!
Wonder if you guys ever have had the authentic Chennapoda as made in the village sweet shops? This is baked overnight on the glowing embers of a wood fire and is a far cry from the stuff sold by city shops which are cooked in ovens!
Ah ! How much I relish our humble pakhala bhaat with badhi chura, saga, aloo bharta, sukua bhaja,etc! The dish is an ideal way to relieve the stress of the hot summer afternoons . And I love parboiled (usuna) rice pakhala not the polished arua which is tasteless! Just add a bit of dahi, sprinkle a few lemon leaves to spice it up !
I always get ecstatic when I taste our delicious pithas! The wide variety simply stumps me! I wonder how our ladies remember their zealously guarded recipes and complicated preparation methods! If you visit any coastal Orissa village during the Raja festival, you will agree with me! Once I remember counting 12 types offered to me on a large bronze plate which was truly a visual delight apart from their lovely aroma! Poda pitha, chakuli, monda, chittau, muga, suji, etc are some of the names I can recollect!
The king of pithas is the tasty poda pitha no doubt ! Every housewife has her own recipe and no two poda pithas taste the same! I can never forget the appetizing smell of a chakuli pitha cooked over a low wood fire! And the best combination is to have it with piping hot watery mutton curry! I wonder if any of our city bred kids have ever tasted a chakuli pitha made on a wood fire?
I had a good friend, an army major from Rajasthan who loved Enduri pithas which are prepared only during Prathamastami festival! He was enchanted by the strong aroma of turmeric leaves which are used to wrap and steam them.
Unlike the guys from North who love to cook a single vegetable we have experimented for centuries on the mix and match concept and have arrived at wonderful combinations like dalma, santula, sajana saag with dal, buta dal with fish head, lau with shrimp, etc.
Every district has got its own special dish, each one a gastronomic delight no doubt! I relish the mudhi mansha of Baripada, macha mahura of Jagatsinghpur, malpua and dalma of Puri, poda mansa of Angul, dahi bara, aloo dam and guguni of Cuttack city, kora of Bhubaneswar, sukhua rai of Khurda, bara of Dhenkanal, etc. Yum! Thinking of these dishes has made my mouth water!
Can’t claim to do justice to the paschim Orissa cuisine since I have never had a traditional western Orissa meal! I hope one of our western Orissa dadas invites me!
But we are a self-effacing race, rarely taking pride in our priceless culture, heritage and lifestyles! We should feel proud of our remarkable cuisine! And I sincerely hope that we can survive the onslaught of pizzas and burgers which our kids love to chomp!
And guys, make it a point to invite friends and visitors from outside the state to your homes for a true Oriya meal so that he goes back with a truly unforgettable experience!
posted by Kalinga Sandha at
9:06 AM
9 Comments:
Dear Kalinga Sandha,
You struck the right chord..... I miss the Oriya food... we Oriyas must be proud to declare that we know how to eat and we eat the best. No... we should never feel ashamed to call ourselves good eaters. Pohola Macha bhaja, Baitalu Phula bhaja, Chatu bhaja, Sajana Saga, Lau danka and so many more... Yes, fellow Oriyas outside the state badly miss the authentic Oriya food.
Among the many cuisines from various states, only Punjabi & South Indian have stood out and become popular across. Rajasthani, Gujrati, Hyderabadi (Deccani) & Bengali cuisines are trying to make a mark. Some one outside the state of Punjab opened up a stall for fellow Punjabis and slowly it caught up in that town and spread out. Simmilarly South Indian food. Unfortunately the Oriya entrepreneur has tried out only in Bhubanesar (Dalma,Dalema etc.). If some one opens up a restaurant for fellow Oriyas in say Delhi, Hyderabad or Chennai where thousands of Oriyas live, I am pretty sure it will be thronged by Oriyas first and then people from other states, and soon it could become popular. If the "Dalemas" are listening..... here is an opportunity to earn and do us proud.
Finally the Oriya sweet ... so many of them.... could easily become a brand since the variety is much more than any other State. Apart from Calcutta Sweets, Pulla Reddy Sweets and Ganguram Sweets, we should also see Orissa/Kalinga sweets.
Had enough food for thought I guess ? Have some water !
Ah! You have just managed to whet my appetite. The list of Oriya delicacies that you have listed are quite eclectic in their own way. I am still stumped why people plump for sandesh when we have our own heavenly chhenapoda. Some years ago, Omfed tried its hand in selling Chhenapoda, but they never came anywhere close to the original thing baked by our mothers in villagers. The sheer sight of the massive blob of chhenapoda with its burnt top is enough to make me go yum yum... I bet any day Chhenapoda would beat the artificial puddings made by the modern-day mothers hands down in taste and flavour. I know of several non-Oriyas who packe their bags with chhenapoda blocks when returning home.
As for Pithas I never quite understood why no hotel in Bhubaneswar or for that matter elsewhere in Orissa had it on their menus and instead opted for Dosas, which are again never near the originals. As any true-blue Oriya worth his pitha would surely agree that the pithas can be taken ins several ways - with vegetable curry, muton curry, jaggery, sugar and milk unlike the dosas which is quite bland when compared to the Doasa. It surely beats me. It's not just the pithas, but several such delicacies like chhunchipatra, enduri, manda pitha and kakara. All that the tiny shops in Ekamra haat serve are apologies of Kakara which are stone hard. Never try them. Even the much-vaunted Dalema restaurant has nothing beyond the pakhala, and it is again quite tasteless.
You are right Shandha. As a race we have never felt proud in our achievements and our assets. Instead we froth in our mouth over the phantom species called Paikas, who in their lifetime never won a war. I guess we have got all our priorities wrong.
How come all of you left out patara poda macha.
The oriya bride's father with folded arms asked one of the invities who happens to be a southindian whether they had their food or not,they not only praised the oriya food but went on to say "we are totally fed up"meaning eaten to the brime.
Lastword.
I agree Last word!
We do overfeed our guests especially during weddings and other festivities.
If you have ever attended a sit down dinner at a rural wedding you will realize what I mean.They go on plying you with more fish or mutton inspite of polite refusals! And one does really feel sorry to let the food go waste!
Somebody should seriously think of opening a pitha centre at Bhubaneswar or Cuttack where our wonderful pithas would be available throughout the year.
I love the patara poda macha! It is delicious with the mahurali fish!
But there are different styles! They do it in one particular way in the coastal districts and the cooking style in the Gadjat areas like Nayagarh , Angul, etc. is different.
Though we have the regular kitchen with gas cooking we do use a wood fire fireplace for some special cooking.
Food cooked over wood fire is great! Especially if you cook mutton over a slow fire without pressure cooker.
But who has the time nowadays in the busy world for this ?
Heard that the Dalma restaurant at BBSR is doing roaring business.
It is hugely successful due to its low prices and quick service.
Lord Jagannath's kitchen prepares food the way it was done centuries ago. That is why you do not find tomatoes, brinjals,capsicum in the menu.
I think this should be one of the unique points for attracting temple tourists to eat food which is done as per recipe laid out hundreds of years ago. The food is also cooked in the same way i.e., putting one pot on the top of the other as was done centuries ago.
It is amazing , isn't it?
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