Bihari kebab: thin beef strips worked in raw papaya, mustard oil, poppy seed and mace, then grilled over coals until they pull apart. Eid food from Bihar.

Bihari mutton curry: goat seared in mustard oil, then braised slowly in a masala ground fresh on the stone. The dish a Bihari wedding feast is judged on.

Bhandare wali aloo: floury potatoes broken by hand into a thin sour curry with no onion or garlic, served with poori. The communal meal of the Ganges plain.

Dahi chura: thick flattened rice softened in set curd with cane jaggery, eaten on Makar Sankranti in Bihar, where the festival is named after the dish.

Rasiao: rice simmered into whole milk and sweetened with cane jaggery off the heat, served with ghee roti. The Kharna prasad eaten before Chhath’s long fast.

Kaddu bhaat: bottle gourd and chana dal with rice, cooked without onion or garlic in rock salt. The meal Bihar eats before the thirty-six-hour Chhath fast.

Maithil machh: rohu steaks fried hard in mustard oil and finished in a thin garlic and mustard gravy. The fish that must be served at a Mithila wedding.