Mattha
Mattha: curd whisked thin with cold water, salted and spiced with roasted cumin and green chilli. The everyday summer buttermilk of the eastern plain.
Banarasi Lassi
Banarasi lassi: set curd whipped thick, spooned into a clay kulhad and buried under malai, rabri and pistachio. Not the pourable Punjabi drink.
Bel ka Sharbat
Bel ka sharbat: wood apple pulp soaked, mashed and strained, then taken savoury-sour with roasted cumin, black salt and chaat masala. Bihar’s summer drink.
Sattu ka Sharbat
Sattu ka sharbat: roasted black chickpea flour in cold water, savoury with black salt, cumin and green chilli, or sweet with jaggery. Bihar’s field drink.
Gur ka Pua
Gur ka pua: wheat flour batter sweetened with cane jaggery and fried in ghee until lacy at the edge and chewy within. Bihar’s Holi sweet, never syruped.
Pedakiya
Pedakiya: half-moon pastries filled with khoya, coconut and cardamom, fried in ghee and left unsyruped. Bihar makes them for Teej, not Holi.
Makhana Kheer
Makhana kheer: fox nuts from Mithila’s ponds roasted in ghee, half crushed into reducing milk and half left whole. The kheer that can be eaten on a fast day.
Parwal ki Mithai
Parwal ki mithai: pointed gourd hollowed, simmered in syrup until translucent, and stuffed with sweetened khoya. A vegetable turned into mithai.
Launglata
Launglata: thin dough parcels filled with khoya and dry fruit, pinned shut with a whole clove, fried in ghee and steeped in syrup. Uniquely Banarasi.