Whenever I travel to a new city, I like to begin my exploration with local food. For Raigarh, this included searching for Chhattisgarhi food beyond the restaurant menu. Rice can be served in various forms, including kheer, sabudana, khichdi, and dals, vegetables, and curd together in one meal.
I did not expect everything to be available at every café or restaurant. Instead, I interacted with locals and asked them what had been prepared today before planning my meal.
Start your Raigarh morning with chila
Chila was my first breakfast choice. This thin, savoury dish is made from a batter of rice and urad dal in a well-known Chhattisgarhi version. I would have it freshly prepared, with whichever chutney the cook serves alongside it. It sounds like the sort of breakfast that gives me a good start without taking up half the morning.
Hotels in Raigarh may offer a familiar breakfast spread, so I asked whether they serve chila or can suggest a nearby place to try it. This one question would lead to a much more interesting first meal.
Try fara for a different kind of rice dish in Raigarh
Furthermore, I suggest trying fara right after eating kheer. These rice dumplings show the variety of uses that can be made with simple ingredients. The way of preparing fara is quite different from that of chila, so I recommend trying them both. That would help you learn more about the local cuisine instead of having the same breakfast over and over again.
Fara has always been of interest to me to inquire about in any local café or restaurant that serves homemade meals. If I saw it on the menu, I would immediately order it to learn more about how it is prepared.
Make lunch about local breads and comforting Raigarh curries
For lunch, I suggest looking for angakar roti, a rice-flour bread associated with Chhattisgarhi cooking. I liked the idea of trying rice in yet another form, this time as part of a full meal. If a restaurant served it with a vegetable dish, I would take the chance to order both and see how the flavours work together.
Dubki kadhi would also catch my eye. It is a yoghurt-based dish with gram-flour dumplings, making it a comforting option with rice. The best part of ordering a regional dish is finding out how one kitchen makes it.
Keep an eye out for Raigarh’s thethri and khurmi
It was common for me to keep some room for snacks so that I could learn something about the region’s local celebrations. Thethri is salty, while khurmi is sweet, and both are traditional Chhattisgarhi dishes made for festivals like Teej and Pola. I would taste them whenever I crossed a sweet shop or a place making local snacks.
I would choose khurmi to take home. It is a sweet whose ingredients include wheat flour and jaggery or sugar, and it gives me yet another local flavour to taste.
Let the day’s menu guide you in Raigarh
I would treat this list as a basis and then check out what is freshly available. On one occasion, I might have breakfast chila and then have fara. On another occasion, what I would probably remember would be just rice and some sweets. This made my food experience in Raigarh much more exciting than sticking to a certain food schedule.
When comparing hotels in Raigarh, I would focus more on whether there were dining options instead of types of accommodations. A convenient place allows one to know more about local cafés, learn about Chhattisgarhi food, and come back to the food they liked the most.
