Here are 10 lesser-known Bihari dishes that deserve to be on the radar. Mention Bihar’s food and the conversation often begins and ends with litti chokha. But the state’s culinary traditions extend far beyond its most famous dish, with a remarkable variety of everyday preparations, seasonal ingredients and distinctive cooking methods. From jute flowers and leafy greens to rice, lentils, local peas and tiny boondi simmered in milk, these foods reflect a cuisine that is both resourceful and deeply rooted in seasonal eating. Bihar’s own tourism material describes its traditional food as heavily seasonal, with mustard oil, rice, wheat, lentils and fresh produce forming its backbone.
This is the kind of dish that rarely travels beyond the communities that grew up eating it. Kusi kerao is associated with the Jitiya festival and uses small green peas or local lentils, soaked and cooked with greens such as poi saag. Mildly spiced and served with rice, it is a reminder that festive Bihari food is not always about elaborate sweets or rich gravies. Mithila’s love for seasonal greens finds a particularly delicious expression in tarua, thinly sliced vegetables or leaves coated in a light batter and fried. Tilkor, a local edible leaf, is among the regional varieties used for this preparation. It is less a single rigid recipe than a seasonal cooking tradition, where what is growing in the fields can determine what lands on the plate. Sometimes the most revealing dishes are the simplest. Chura bhunja uses flattened rice roasted with ingredients such as onion, peanuts, green chilli and spices. It can work as breakfast or an evening snack, and its appeal lies in the contrast between crisp chura, crunchy peanuts and the sharp heat of chillies.