Travel to find local, lesser-known food cultures in India
Crunchy and crumbly, with a hint of a low heat—tsong thaltak, a whole-wheat onion biscuit-bread topped with poppy seeds that tastes like mathri but crumbles like an oatmeal cookie is hardly what I imagined Ladakhi food to be. A few years ago, when I travelled to Ladakh on work, I was gobsmacked by the sheer variety of baked goods that dotted the cuisine.
From Kunzes Angmo, who runs a culinary experience in Leh called Artisanal Alchemy, I learnt that tsong thaltak is traditionally baked in flat iron containers and buried in dry leaves that cook it overnight. It’s just one example of the rich culinary heritage passed down along the Silk Route via traders, scholars and travellers. Ladakhi cuisine is often lumped with other Himalayan food clichés as being a cuisine of soups and noodles, but this trip revealed just how rich and complex the food of the region is. No AI-generated itinerary could’ve told me that.
There’s no doubt that food plays a pivotal role in shaping our travel experiences, influencing where we go and how we spend our time when we arrive. Initially, we expected the internet to deepen our appreciation for diverse culinary cultures. However, with the surge of food recommendations on platforms like Instagram, there’s a trend toward a more homogenous dining experience.
As popular dishes and trendy locations dominate social media feeds, the unique flavours and local traditions that once defined our culinary explorations risk becoming diluted and stripped of meaning. Blame it on my algorithm but it feels like everyone is eating at the same places and using the same recipes. While India’s restaurant scene continues to innovate and excite, many varied culinary landscapes across the country are waiting to be explored. I’m making it a personal mission to seek out local, lesser-known food cultures and lesser-talked-about food destinations in India.
My quest began with a conversation with fellow journalist, Anubhuti Krishna, from whom I learnt of vegetarian Lucknowi dishes such as angoori kaddu that’s known for its sweet-tart-spicy flavour profile, and sunheri baingan (brinjal in a yogurt gravy). In 2023, Krishna, who lives in Delhi but grew up in Lucknow, launched Lucknow with Anubhuti, a history-meets-food trail across the city that she and her husband Debashish Kar put together to help visitors experience their hometown “beyond the clichés.”
Lucknow is hardly a lesser-known food city but Krishna’s tours focus on a side of the city that most travellers don’t have access to: home-cooked meals and heirloom recipes. At the famous Tunday Kebab, Krishna allows her guests to “only eat the kebab and korma” as “there’s so much more the city has to offer to waste unnecessary calories.” Her tours change according to the time of year. In late July, which is mango season in Lucknow, the tour featured a range of lesser-known mango dishes such as raw mango kheer and kaccha aam and qeema pulao (raw mango and mutton mince pulao).
Last year, Nakul Bhonsle, founder of the Pune-based craft brewery Great State Aleworks, was struck by a similar whim. A chance meeting with Shishir Nikam, founder of bespoke travel company Black Swan Journeys, led to the creation of a “Fortress, froth, food & folklore” trip that explored Aurangabad, the city Bhonsle grew up in.
When I asked what inspired it, he said: “We have this bad habit of taking the things that are in our backyard for granted. I wanted to make it a point to understand where I come from better.” The trip spanned an exploration of the rock-cut caves at Ajanta and Ellora, the formidable Daulatabad Fort and Bibi ka Maqbara, as well as culinary explorations of Aurangabad specials like naan qalia, a slow-cooked spiced mutton in a rich, aromatic gravy; a meal with the legendary chef Zama Khan with dishes such as the Pathani bakra mandhi (a delicately spiced dish made of rice and lamb that’s cooked underground), the Afghani dumpukht and sitafal rabdi (a Mughal-era dessert prepared with custard apple) that was washed down with some craft beers. Guests helped Khan prepare the lamb before it was put into the underground tandoor. “The final reveal was nothing short of cinematic—soft, tender meat falling off a leg of lamb, it was pure beauty,” says Bhonsle, who recounts how mesmerised the group was.
In contrast to the slick, stylised images and trending truffle dishes we’re bombarded with online, local food experiences thrive on spontaneity, delivering a genuine taste of a destination’s essence. Great State and Black Swan are planning another trip across Aurangabad this March and a trip centred around India’s indigenous spirits is in the works too.
There’s much to choose from in March, I learnt, as I went deeper down this rabbit hole. Chef Thomas Zacharias’s The Locavore, which champions regional food through storytelling, recipes and events, has put together a four-day immersive food and travel experience in Jharkhand to have guests engage with local communities in the Jonha region, which is renowned for its sustainable harvesting of mahua flowers. I’m bookmarking it.
Across India, like-minded folks are coming together to explore local food cultures beyond the surface.The Nilgiris Food Festival is another example. It takes place across Coonoor, Kotagiri and Ooty every December and aims to facilitate discussions and heighten awareness about locally sourced foods, cultural heritage and ecological sustainability, particularly in the context of a changing climate. Standouts have included meals featuring Badaga tribal cuisine and workshops that focus on forgotten greens.
For those of us who spend a little too much time on the internet, it’s refreshing to think about the joy of discovering something on your own, outside of a predetermined algorithm. Since I started talking to people about my food travel plans for the year, I’ve been flooded with personal recommendations that range from Surat’s Burmese-inspired street food to apple pie and wood-fired pizza in Varanasi. I’m grabbing my fork and putting down my phone. Will you?
Word of Mouth is a monthly column on dining out and dining well. Smitha Menon is a food journalist and the host of the Big Food Energy podcast. She posts @smitha.men on Instagram.
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