Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, April 2: With mercury levels increasing sharply over the last couple of weeks, restaurants in the city are changing their menus to cater to thirsty, dehydrated palates by offering dishes which give a refreshing and cooling effect to the body. And what better dish can there be than the ‘dahi pakhala’, the staple fare of Oriya households across the state during the summer.
Restaurants are now packaging the Dahi Pakhala in unique ways in order to introduce a bit of innovation and attract a wider audience.
A popular restaurant in Patia is offering the vegetarian version of the dish at Rs 130. For this price, you get up to eight accompanying items. For the non-vegetarian Dahi Pakhala, you will have to shell out Rs 210.
The accompanying prawn and fish fries along with several vegetarian items make it a very good value-for-money proposition overall.
Restaurateurs say the packaging of Dahi Pakhala has transformed over the years. “Recently, there have been a few variants which try to retain the sour taste while doing away with the cumbersome fermentation process. Fresh pakhala or saja pakhala as we like to call it is a comparatively new phenomenon where lemons do their bit to make it sour while curd is poured generously to convert it into the very popular Dahi Pakhala,” says Srinivas Dalai, manager of Dalma Restaurant in Patia.
“For the non-vegetarian lot, fried fish do the trick. The demand of this indigenous dish is very high, and a lot of tourists who come from West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, and even from New Delhi become very big fans of the dish,” Dalai informs.
“The summer special dish has retained its majesty even in the face of stiff competition from the ‘zinger burgers’ and ‘cheese-burst’ pizzas,” said Vicky Sarkar, an MBA student from XIMB
“Such is the spell cast by this dish that never will a true-blue Oriya trade his bowl of Pakhala for a pizza. Never will a Oriya boy barter his ‘badi-chura’ for a burger, ever,” says Sarkar.
This summer special dish has proved to be a good option for working professionals from the city.
“To avoid sunstroke and for instant relief from stress, we need a heavy meal during the day which is at the same time easy on our stomach. A lot of people prefer not to go for oily and spicy food during summer and naturally the best alternative is Dahi Pakhala. Its cooling effects are legendary,” said Madhusudhan Patra, an accounts executive officer in the city.
