"Magical Delicacies of Puri"

 Magical Delicacies of Puri

Jai Jagannath

Introduction

Friends, In October 2021, I got nice opportunity for Puri trip along with my parents. I love travelling and I am also food lovers. I have read many travel and food blog. Writing a blog is nice thing. This blogs guide other people to plan trip. So, this is now my turn to help others. I had a wonderful experience while seeing Lord Jagannath the god of universe in Puri’s Jagannath Temple. Rameshwaraam, Badrinath, Dwarika and Puri are 4 dhams in hindu religion. I think every hindu will visit to Puri once in his life time. Rath Yatra is a holy festival in India. It is one of the most famous festivals of Puri Odisha and is even celebrated in parts of the country. According to Hindu mythology it is said that person can get free from birth and death and can get heaven, who attends Rath Yatra of famous god of Jagannath. Every year Rath Yatra is celebrated on the Ashadha Shukla Paksha, Dwitiya Tithi as per traditional calendar. This year Rath Yatra was celebrated on 12th July 2021. Next year it is falling on the 1^st July. On this day, the devotees pull the chariot of the trinity- Lord Balabhadra, Lord Jagannath and Devi Subhadra. This festival is also known as Shri Gundicha Yatra as it is on this day when these three deities are taken from the famous Jagannath temple to Gundicha temple. The festival of Rath Yatra lasts for 9 days as the three deities stay in the Gundicha temple during this time period. The best part of this joyous festival is the preparation of 56 delectable dishes or chhappan bhog as an offering to the deities.

After seeing Lord Jagannath, now this is time to taste delicious food of Puri. There are wide varieties of Odia food in Puri. Puri offers diverse cuisines to all kinds of travellers: vegetarian, non-vegetarian, seafood-lovers, local food tryouts and still some more. There are a lot of places for food lovers in Puri, where you can taste this mouth-watering cuisine. Many sweet shops near Lord Jagannath temple, you can find Puri’s famous dish like Khaja and Rasabali. Puri Beach a lot of restaurants have provided some tasty food.

You must go Hotel The Grand Regency located in Grand Road, Puri. We visited Grand Regency restaurant. This is located on 2nd floor of the Shopping complex with same name. The view you get from the terrace is that of Jagannath temple right across the street. I loved the breakfast too. We ordered butter masala dosa, paper dosa, plain dosa, idli, sweet lassi & coffee. All items were good. You can also try Orissa special- Dalma & Bassara -a unique experience. Had a very lip smacking lunch Must go on your visit to Puri. Try that and enjoy the picturesque view! We can get spectacular view of Shri Jagannath temple. Love it.

Hotel Grand Regency, Puri

So, here is a list of foods that you can make for Jagannath Puri Rath Yatra. From chenna poda to malpua, there are a variety of dishes that you can make on this joyous occasion.

 1.     Khaja

Khaja is a sweet dish that is not only popular in Odisha but even in other parts of the country. But, in Odisha people mostly offer it as a prasad to Lord Jagannath. You can make khaja using wheat flour and sugar. This sweet dish is so crunchy from the outside that you can never have enough of it. So, enjoy this sweet and crispy dish during the 9-day long festival. 

Best Place to Eat Khaja: Near Jagannath Temple

2. Chenna Poda

If you have made a visit to Odisha, then you must have heard about its special sweet dish, chenna poda. Chenna Poda, cooked for several hours, is a festival-special as it is believed to be Lord Jagannath’s favourite sweet dish. It is cooked in homes and food joints on special occasions and festivals. The taste is entirely from cottage cheese as well as caramelized sugar. The patience and time required for this dish make it a must-try for food in Puri. It is available at almost every shop at Puri and is famously served at the maha bhog at the Temple. You can make this dish with rice flour, paneer or chenna, and sugar. To further enhance the taste of this dish, do not forget to add a lot of nuts, cardamom powder and more. 

Best Place to Eat Chenna Poda: Sweet Shops around Lord Jagannath Temple

3. Malpua

Just the name of malpua is enough to raise the excitement of all of us. Isn’t it? Malpua is a traditional sweet dish of India that one prepares during almost all Indian festivals. You can make a variety of malpua such as the ragi malpua, paneer malpua and many more. This special sweet dish is crispy from the outside and so soft from the inside, that it melts inside your mouth, on just taking a bite of it. You can increase the flavours of malpua by adding cardamom powder. Another sweet delicacy served as the morning food to Lord Jagannath at the Puri Temple, Malpuas of Puri are especially famous as it is cooked very differently from the rest of India. The essential ingredients used in the malpuas are all-purpose flour, bananas, cardamoms, coconut, milk and fennel seeds.

Best Place to Eat Malpua: Original Nrusingha Sweets

4. Khichdi

The best way to celebrate the Jagannath Puri Rath Yatra festival is by making delicious dishes. One such dish is khichdi. Khichdi not only counts as a healthy dish but is a festival special dish too. A twist in the Indian Khichdi, Khicede is a famous Odia dish served at the Puri Temple as a part of the maha bhog made to Lord Jagannath. The flavours of desi ghee, lentils and spices are so tempting that you will want more of this healthy dish. You can also add vegetables like peas, cauliflower and more to raise the taste of this dish.  This dish is served alongside papad and curd to complete a meal for a person.

Best Place to Eat Khichdi: Jagannath Temple

5. Rasabali

Rasabali is a sweet dish made of farmer’s cheese which is deep fried till it reddens. It is Oriya cuisine served at Puri. It is cooked into the flattened but round dough so that it has enough surface to soak up the milk that is flavoured with cardamom seeds. It is also another famous dish that is served at the Chappan bhog at the Jagannath Temple and is available at most food joints as delicious food in Puri. If you are a sweet dish lover, we are sure you will like the flavours of rasabali. Rasabali is a famous dish in Odisha which you can make during the celebration of Rath Yatra. For making rasabali, the milk is thickened. Later, when rasabali is dipped in this thickened milk or rabri, you will simply drool over its sweet and aromatic flavours.

Best Place to Eat Rasabali: Lord Jagannath Temple

6. Dalma

A city-special, Dalma became so popular Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam added it to the President’s food menu. Dalma is another traditional food of Odisha that needs no introduction. The best part about this traditional dish is that it is super healthy as you can make this even without oil. Dalma, cooked as a mix of lentils and vegetables, tastes surprisingly good. There is a restaurant in Puri named after this famous dish itself, Dalma, located on VIP Road that promises to serve all travellers with what it knows best: local Odia cuisine. One must visit this restaurant to try out the authentic food in Puri. The addition of green vegetables and lentils further raises the health profile of this dish. This savoury dish from Odisha has become so popular that people across the country want to try dalma. You can add a lot of spices like pepper, turmeric, cumin and more to raise the taste of the dish.

Best Place to Eat Dalma: Dalma, VIP Road, Hotel Grand Regency, Puri

7. Santula

A delicious and healthy dish, Santula is a vegetarian Odia curry that is served as a meal either with rice or Indian bread. Santula is a properly-cooked healthy food in Puri that is made of mostly all vegetables that might not suit our taste buds (brinjal can’t be everybody’s favourite after all) but when cooked together with little oil and flavoured but less spicy  - the dish is a must try food at Puri. It can be had either fried or boiled, depending on your preference. This is a vegetable curry you can make with potatoes, brinjal, tomatoes and more. Add a lot of spices, panch phoran and ghee to level up the flavours of this dish. You can pair santula with roti or rice. 

Best Place to Eat Santula: Dalma, VIP Road

8. Chungdi Malai

Puri’s location on the Bay of Bengal makes it an ideal place for any seafood dish. Chungdi Malai, a delicious prawn dish that has a creamier texture because of the use of coconut milk during its cooking. Spices are then added to this smoother texture to make it a lip-smacking favourite food in Puri. This unique dish is then served with basmati rice, which makes for a satisfying and full-filing meal for one.  

Best Place to Eat Chungdi Malai: Restaurants situated Puri Sea Beach

9. Macha Chenncheda

Another seafood dish, Macha Chenncheda, is famous across the town of Puri because of its aromatic deliciousness that calls to travellers all around the globe. This food in Puri is cooked with fish, vegetables, chana dal and bananas. Nobody could ever think to bring these ingredients together in a single dish, but this Odia dish has done so and oh, how tastefully even. This dish is best served with rice on the side but can also be enjoyed with rotis.

Best Place to Eat Macha Chenncheda: Wildgrass Restaurant

10. Kheer

Festivals are all about delectable sweet dishes. Kheer is one such dish without which all the festivals seem incomplete. This dish makes the chhappan bhog even more mouth-watering and is also a famous Puri food. You can make kheer using many ingredients like sabudana, dry fruits and many more. 

Best Place to Eat Kheer: Shops near Jagannath Temple

11. Abadha

An Abadha Thali is served at the Puri Temple which comprises of all the dishes from the Mahaprashad that is served to Lord Jagannath at the Temple. The thali is priced between INR 70 - 120 and includes most varieties of local cuisine of Puri. One needs to go and have the Abadha that is served at the Temple as well as in Anand Bazaar to experience the local food in Puri at its best!

Best Place to Eat Abadha: Jagannath Temple

12. Poda Pitha

Another flavourful and tasty dish that you must make during Jagannath Puri Rath Yatra is poda pitha. It is said Lord Jagannath loves sweet dishes, so making sweet dishes during this time becomes a must. Poda pitha is one such sweet dish that is like a pancake. You can make this delicious food with rice flour and some flavourful spices like cardamom. You can also garnish poda pitha with coconut and sweeten it with jaggery for additional flavours.

Best Place to Eat Poda Pitha: Near Jagannath Temple

13. Ukhuda

Ukhuda is one of the traditional foods of Odisha. This is a special dish out of the 56 dishes which devotees offer at the Jagannath temple, Puri. You can also make this dish at your home with the help of rice and sugar. For making ukhuda, the puffed rice is fried. Later, all you have to do is sweeten ukhuda with sugar.

Best Place to Eat Ukhuda: Near Jagannath Temple

The local food of Puri is as sweet and diverse as the experience of the town itself. All in all, these traditional foods of Odisha are so tasty that they become a must-try for all of you. You can hardly ask for more than this elaborate affair of local cuisine than what is offered at Puri. The city surely goes out of its way to provide for all kinds of a traveller a dish of its own Odia twist that could hardly be forgotten very quickly. I think your taste bud might get activated.   

Puri is heaven for food lovers. So, what are you waiting for?  Go to Puri with your family and enjoy this fantatistic Odia cuisine there. 

Jagannath Temple Prasad & Rest of Puri Food with special food : Orissa Food Series

Dr. Mayank Chandrakar is a writer also. My first book "Ayurveda Self Healing: How to Achieve Health and Happiness" is available on Kobo and Instamojo. You can buy and read. 

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The Third Book "Vision for a Healthy Bharat: A Doctor’s Dream for India’s Future" is recently launch in India and Globally in Kobo and Instamojo.

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