What to Eat in Mathura Today?

A vegetarian table

Meat and alcohol are not sold in the pilgrimage areas of Mathura and Vrindavan, and many kitchens also skip onion and garlic. That shapes everything on the menu. What Braj does best is dairy, from sweets made of slowly reduced milk to thick yoghurt drinks.

Breakfast in the lanes

The pilgrim breakfast is kachori with sabzi: puffed, flaky kachoris with a spiced potato curry, eaten from leaf plates at shops near the temples and the river. Look for it early. The best batches sell out by mid-morning, and many shops fry fresh through the first hours only. Bedmi puri, a lentil-stuffed puri, often comes with the same potato curry.

Mathura peda

The Mathura peda is darker than most pedas. Khoya is cooked until it browns and turns faintly caramel, then mixed with sugar and rolled in more sugar. It is the town's best-known sweet, offered at the temples and packed in boxes for people back home. It keeps for several days, which makes it the easiest gift to carry.

Butter and prasad

Makhan mishri, fresh white butter with crystals of rock sugar, is the offering most linked to the child Krishna, who stole butter in the stories. You will find it as prasad and at sweet shops. It is simple, rich and best eaten fresh.

Lassi and thandai

Vrindavan lassi comes in a clay cup, thick enough to eat with a spoon and topped with a layer of malai. Thandai is a chilled milk drink with almonds, fennel, rose and saffron, and it is the drink of Holi. In Holi week some thandai contains bhang, a cannabis paste, so ask before you drink and avoid it if you are unsure. For shops that serve these, see where to eat.