What to Eat in Nalanda Today?

Silao khaja

Silao is a small town a short drive from the ruins, on the road between Bihar Sharif and Rajgir. Its khaja is made from a dozen or more paper-thin layers of dough, fried until crisp and then dipped in sugar syrup. It shatters when you bite it. Silao khaja received a Geographical Indication tag in 2018, and local legend says the Buddha was offered it as he passed this way. Buy it fresh from a shop in Silao; it keeps for several days in a box, which makes it the obvious gift to take home.

Litti chokha

This is Bihar's best-known dish. Balls of wheat dough are stuffed with spiced sattu (roasted gram flour), baked or roasted over coals, then broken open and dipped in ghee. They come with chokha, a smoky mash of roasted aubergine, tomato and potato with raw onion and mustard oil. It is filling, so a plate makes a full lunch after the ruins.

Sattu paratha

Sattu is everywhere in Bihar. For breakfast, it is stuffed into parathas with onion, green chilli and pickle masala, and eaten with chutney or yoghurt. Look for it at roadside stalls early in the morning, before you head to the site.

Dal pitha

Soft rice-flour dumplings filled with spiced lentil paste and steamed. Some people call them Bihar's momos. They are a home snack more than a restaurant dish, so you may have to ask for them.

Thekua

A hard, crunchy biscuit of wheat flour, jaggery and grated coconut, fried and often pressed with a pattern. Every Bihari home makes it for Chhath, when it is offered to the sun. Outside the festival, sweet shops sell it by weight.

Tips

Most food around the ruins and at Pawapuri is vegetarian. The Jain temples and the eateries around them avoid onion and garlic in many dishes. Carry snacks and water into the ruins: there is no food inside. See where to eat for the places listed near each site.