What to Eat in Rajgir Today?

Litti chokha first

If you eat one thing in Rajgir, make it litti chokha. The litti are wheat dough balls stuffed with spiced sattu, which is roasted gram flour, then baked over coals and dipped in ghee. They come with chokha: mashed roasted aubergine, tomato and potato with mustard oil, garlic and green chilli. It is filling, cheap and best at lunch, fresh from the fire.

Sattu sharbat for the heat

Sattu turns up again in a glass. Sattu sharbat is roasted gram flour whisked with water, lemon, roasted cumin and black salt, sometimes with chopped onion and green chilli. Bihar's workers drink it as fuel on hot days, and it is exactly what you want after coming down from Vulture Peak or out of the Nalanda ruins in April.

Breakfast: ghugni and chura

Ghugni is a spiced curry of black gram or dried peas. Eaten with chura, flattened rice, it makes a quick, cheap breakfast at the bazaar stalls before an early climb.

Silao khaja

Silao, on the road between Rajgir and Nalanda, has been making khaja for generations, and the sweet now carries a GI tag. The pastry is layered like filo, fried until it shatters, then soaked briefly in sugar syrup. Buy it fresh from the shops along the road. It keeps for several days in a box, so it travels well as a gift.

Thekua

Thekua is a hard, crunchy biscuit of wheat flour, jaggery and fennel, fried in ghee. Every Bihari household makes it for Chhath Puja, when it is offered to the setting and rising sun. You will find it at sweet shops all year.

Eating around the sights

The hilltops have almost nothing beyond water and snacks at the ropeway base, so eat before you go up. The bazaar near the hot springs has the most stalls. For sit-down meals and where to find each dish, see where to eat in Rajgir.

A note on the water

Stick to bottled or filtered water, and to drinks made with it. Sattu sharbat from a busy stall is usually fine; ask for it without ice if you are unsure.