Photo Credit: Raveesh Vyas
One of the things I’m looking forward to on our upcoming late winter trip to India (mid-February through early March) is being able to sample the regional food in the areas we’ll be traveling through. Aditya and I will be in India for about three weeks and in that time we’ll go through Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and West Bengal – so there will be lots of different types of local delicacies to try! A friend sent me this wonderful food map she found to help me prepare for this culinary delight (and to make me salivate), and I thought I’d share it with you all:
(Click to enlarge)
I’m not sure of the originial creator of this map, so if you know, please leave a note in the comments so I can credit approrpriately.
6. November 2009 at 10:04 pm
LOL @ Chandigarh being known for Tandoori Chicken….
7. November 2009 at 12:23 am
I love this map. I am very obsessed with regional cooking…this is fun to see.
I think the key to eating well is having insiders/locals point you to the best places to try these dishes at restaurants, and occasionally you can try them in people’s homes.
7. November 2009 at 11:00 am
Ha ha… you know there are a lot of Nepalis in Sikkim when the “must try” dishes include momos, gundruk, thukpa, and sel roti!!
In fact this is where P’s family is ancestrally from… Darjeeling and Kalimpong. His dad was sent to Kathmandu as a child to live with other relatives because of health issues. P was supposed to be sent back to Kalimpong as a small child to go to school, but in the early 80s there was a separatist movement going on there to create an ethnically Nepali “Gorkha-land,” and it was deemed to risky to send him.
If you read the book, “Inheritance of Loss” by Kiran Desai, the backdrop to the story is going on during this time period in this region.
7. November 2009 at 12:35 pm
Technically, both Darjeeling & Kalimpong are in West Bengal, not Sikkim.
8. November 2009 at 1:49 am
oops, my bad, but it is close. I still think there are a lot of Nepalis in Sikkim, similar to Darjeeling area…
7. November 2009 at 11:03 am
When I go next winter, I’ll be going to Bangalore for the first time, so I will get to try some new things!
7. November 2009 at 10:53 pm
yes chole bhature in delhi .. there’s a really great place off NH2 i think … i can find out what it’s called. best chole bhature ever. but bring something to take the edge off the spiciness, even if you’re good with spicy. they’re serious.
12. November 2009 at 3:16 pm
Oooh, if you can figure out/remember what it’s called, triliana, that would be amazing! I’m pretty insane in my love for chole of all sorts…
8. November 2009 at 9:53 am
holy cow! that is an amazing map! thanks for sharing!
8. November 2009 at 11:54 pm
GG, whatever happens, dont miss out on Chokhi Dhani in Jaipur, its an amazing cultural experience, u will love it! Dont go for any chokhi dhani but Jaipur, the real deal. its a 5 star village resort! Mail me if u want any help/planning tips! Enjoy!
12. November 2009 at 3:22 pm
We actually have a cousin in the travel business who is booking our hotels in Rajasthan & getting us a driver, but thank you for the suggestion, NS.
If you have any tips on off-beat places to go in Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Udaipur, or Jaipur (yep, we’re hitting ‘em all), please let me know!
9. November 2009 at 12:05 am
1) I deeply admire whoever was responsible for putting together this glorious map.
2) Red ant chutney intrigues me perhaps more than it should. I must try this at some point. Soon.
10. November 2009 at 4:11 am
Ah…i need to bookmark this map. Very useful information!
10. November 2009 at 4:11 pm
I wish there is a similar sweet/snack map of India. More than food, I grew up eating snacks & sweets. There are tons of varieties apart from the very very sweet type. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_sweets_and_desserts.
This list is not complete.
And snack list is separate.
12. November 2009 at 3:24 pm
The trick is in knowing each state’s particular specialties, I think – the wiki article on sweets just groups by regions. If you have suggestions on a state-by-state basis, it probably wouldn’t be too hard to put together another one for sweets and/or snacks.
11. November 2009 at 12:12 pm
Love it, this is so interesting! M and I often play “guess the region” of the Indian cuisine at a local restaurants, so this will be helpful.
12. November 2009 at 3:03 pm
The map of Maharashtra missing the very delicious and popular dishes of “Puran Poli”, “Zunaka Bhakari”.
12. November 2009 at 3:25 pm
Can you get those in Mumbai? I don’t think we’ll make it out of the city on this trip to Maharashtra…
12. November 2009 at 5:18 pm
You can get them in US as well. Get Deep’s Puran Poli its quite good. You can get it from Desi grocery stores.
12. November 2009 at 5:15 pm
Here is what you must have while traveling the Delhi-Agra-Jaipur triangle
Mathura: Pede & Jalebi (Both sweet. try Brajwasi Sweets. Some of the best sweets are made in Mathura. You can also try veggie lunch here, I think it would be a good breakfast stop while driving from Delhi to Agra)
Agra: Petha & Gajak
Jaipur: Daal Baati & Choorma