Bhubaneswar is a beautiful city, with the lush greenery, well planned infrastructure and of course a culture that blends spirituality with modernity.

As a Bengali (born and brought up in Bengal) who has spent his childhood and teenage gorging on the white roshogollas and also as someone who has stayed in Odisha for more than a decade, I can be a good judge here.

The Pahala Rasagula that also received a GI tag recentlyThese are melt in the mouth rasagolas that you can relish on a cold or windy evening

From kakra, manda (pronounced as mawnda), haldi patra pitha, Odisha offers more than a hundred varieties of pithas.

Vegetables like cauliflower, carrot, potato and peas are chopped, cooked and stuffed inside a mawnda pitha and served with a thin chana matar tarkari (curry).

Malpua (a dish that resembles pancakes made of flour or semolina) dipped in sugary syrup is served with a spiced up dry potato curry

I discovered this pretty late and wondered how could someone put aloo dum on a malpua, till I reached this place.

A combination of sweet and spicy flavors, this dish is a unique proposition to the street food story of Bhubaneswar.

Directions: If you have your back towards the Kesari Mall, take left and walk straight for 30-45 seconds without taking any turn until you see a small kiosk on your right selling evening snacks and tea.

The ghugni (or chickpeas curry) is mostly watery thin and tastes bland, until some black salt (called bit luna in Odia) is sprinkled over it.

Made of rice flour, and sometimes mixed with semolina, gulgula gets most of its flavor from sugar or jaggery and fennel seeds.

Not to forget fried chilies that will take your street food experience in Bhubaneswar to another level, adding dimensions and layers to every bite you take.

While they have their own store, you would find carts in most parts of the city that serve quality stuff of varied flavors like anjeer, mango, litchi, sitaphal, rabri, pan, kesar pista, etc.

I was in two minds on whether this should be on my list, because it took me quite a long time to find good chaat options and most of them are concentrated in one particular area of Bhubaneswar – Rupali Square.

A couple of pieces of dahi bada are tucked in while chopped onions and coriander leaves are liberally drizzled over the plate.

A city that sees soaring temperatures during the summer months finds solace in a glass of lassi that is NOT JUST made up of curd and water/ice.

Curdled milk or chhena is flavored with sugar and cardamom and baked in a container over a medium to high flame.

Very similar to chhanar jilipi found in Bengal, chhena jhili is warm, melt in the mouth sweet with juices dripping from everywhere when you take a bite.

Many of the traditional street food options that Bhubaneswar has today deserves acclaim – not just within India but globally.

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