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Decide your favourite colour and pick a city to
match, Rajasthan's kaleidoscope of colours covers all.
Bastions of history, bristling with memories,
these splendid treasures stand battling the vageries of time.
 Fort Amber
The City Palace, Jaipur
Wind Palace, Jaipur
Chittaurgarh Fort
City Palace, Udaipur
Jaisalmer Fort
Mehrangarh
Fort
Nahargarh Fort, Jaipur
The desert sands shimmer and pulsate with an
energy and a spirit of festivity permeates the air, every season
provides many reasons to celebrate.
Camel Festival
Mewar Festival
Elephant Festival
Gangaur Festival
Pushkar Festival
Desert Festival
Ride a camel over the dunes or horses through
the hillside, speed ahead in a jeep and camp under open skies.
A delicate ecosystem, part desert part marshy
lands and even a small section of lush water filled valleys, sports a
wildlife rich in variety.
Whichever Budget Hotel you choose you will
always experience a traditional hospitality that you may never want to
forget.
Jaipur Budget Hotels
Jaisalmer Budget Hotels
Bharatpur Budget Hotels
Bikaner Budget Hotels
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Rajasthan Tours Travel » Tourist
Attractions » Cuisine of Rajasthan
Cuisine of Rajasthan
The
royal kitchens of Rajasthan have centuries of experience of making food
fit for kings and their skill is such, you will not be disappointed.
Rajasthani cuisine opens up another window into the culture of this great
province, fashioned by the limitations of the desert vegetation and
influenced by the many foreign conquerors who made this land their home,
the cuisine is distinct and delectable. There are a host of vegetarian and
non veg delicacies that originated here, the Rajput's were skilled
shikaris (hunters) and not averse to killing game for a meal. The
Vaishnavas, Bishnois, Marwaris and Jains were strict vegetarians and had
to create innovative preparations to make up for the lack of fresh fruit
and vegetables. In the desert belt of Jaisalmer, Barmer and Bikaner, cooks
make minimum use of water and prefer, instead, to use more milk,
buttermilk and clarified butter. Dried lentils, beans from indigenous
plants like Sangri, Ker etc was what was mainly used, more out of
necessity than choice.
Popular Dishes
Some of the popular dishes specific to Rajasthani cuisine include- Karhi,
popularly known as khatta, made of buttermilk or yogurt, mixed with
chickpea flour, mustard seeds and crushed garlic cloves, cooked on slow
heat for a long time, for the longer it simmers, the better it tastes.
'Gatte ka saag', is cooked with freshly made dumplings of chickpea flour
and 'badi ka saag' is prepared with sun-dried moth-lentil dumplings.
'khichra' a porridge of millets and moth lentils that is cooked along with
water, a little spice and some ghee in combination with either jaggery or
karhi forms a staple part of the Rajasthani diet. The hot
red-chilli-and-garlic chutney (a type of tangy Indian sauce) 'raabori' and
millet flour cooked in buttermilk, (which is believed to be an excellent
coolant in the summers) are popular accompaniments with the food. Sangri
and ker (a hard desert berry) abounds in the preparation of Rajasthani
meals and vegetables such as Okra, Jackfruit, Eggplant, Mustard and
Fenugreek leaves are also used.
Dal-Bati-Choorma,
made of butter and cereals and later sweetened, is quite a delicacy.
Bikaner is famous for its sweets and bhujiya (salties) along with its
papads, badis and on the non-vegetarian side, the lean mutton of the
desert goats. Jodhpuri kachoris (puffed breads with stuffing) are either
sweet (when stuffed with mawa) or quite tangy (when stuffed with hot green
chillies and hot spices). Milk sweets of Bharatpur are not very commonly
seen in markets but melt deliciously into the mouth. They are prepared by
boiling milk for hours to such a consistency that it can be folded into
little pancakes. Ghevar, a delicacy especially prepared during the Teej
festival is quite popular. It looks like a round cake made up of white
flour, which is then dipped into the sweetened syrup and is dressed with
cream and khoya. Kebabs and pasandas and sevaiyan, prepared especially
during the Eid festival are an integral part of the Muslim dining table
are have moved on from the Tonk and Loharu region to cover the whole of
the state.
After spicy, sweet is the next preferred flavour in Rajasthan and each
town boasts of a specific sweet speciality, Laddoos from Jodhpur and
Jaisalmer, Malpuas from Pushkar, Rasogullas from Bikaner, Dil Jani from
Udaipur, Mishri Mawa and Ghevar from Jaipur, Mawa Katchori from Jodhpur,
Sohan Halwa from Ajmer, Mawa from Alwar and the list goes on.
Non Vegetarian Fare
Rajasthani NonVegetarian, unlike most parts of India is not restricted to
Chicken and Fish. Infact the Rajputs were consummate hunters who would
kill and cook wild boar, deer, ducks, fowl, hare, goats and even peacocks.
The game brought in from the hunt was simply cooked in pure ghee, salt and
plenty of red chillies. Though by now most recipes have been refined to an
art. One of the specialties is a dish called Safed Maans or white meat.
The preparation is white in color and is prepared from white mutton. The
curry is prepared from cashew nuts, almonds, fresh coconut kernel paste,
white pepper and poppy seeds. The most common way of preparing meat in
Rajasthan is to first baste in the spices and then roasted in a pot over a
wood fire until it turns into gravy. Kachri, a vegetable belonging to the
cucumber family, is used to marinate the meat and imparts it with a
distinctive tangy flavor.
Created for the Maharajas and their subjects, Rajasthani cuisine is a
result of intense experimentation in the royal kitchens and when you try
it for yourself, you will definitely be delighted.
