In today's episode we are exploring some of the popular and iconic eateries of Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh. Bilaspur is an industrial city with numerous food shops both old and new. Joining us on this quest are menu curator Kriti Sharma and author Dwarika Prasad Agrawal.
The day began with the commute to Bilaspur from Raipur. In between these two places we stopped at two eateries. The first one was Maa Laxmi Sweets where we tried rabri and the second one was Milan sweets where we tried gulab jamaun and pyazi vada.
On reaching Bilaspur, our food tour started with chilled lassi from Om Sai Ram Toofani Lassi Center. From there we moved on to Pendrawala Sweets to try their famous khoya jalebi. The khoya and tikhur based jalebi tasted heavenly with rabri and is a must try thing. Dwarika Ji's deep insights about the shop's history made this experience super enriching.
The next stop was Maosaji. This swanky sweet shop was once a small chaat point. Today they have evolved into an icon. On the recommendation of one of the staffs, we tried the malai gilori and it was yummy. Next we tasted a mini bread pakoda from Shri Shivpuri Sweets and malai ladoo from Sri Bajrang Bali Sweets. These too items were fun to try.
After this we relished a veg thali at Rasoi, another iconic family restaurant. The spread consisting of missi roti, dal, paneer etc. was amazing. From there we went to Mahesh Sweets to meet the owner whose family also owns the Rasoi. Owner Mahesh Ji and Dwarka Ji are close friends hence it was heartening to see the camaraderie when they met.
Next we tried some kanda vada and dosa from Santosh Bhuvan. The thin and lacy masala dosa closely resembled a rava dosa. This was followed by some gupchup and aalu tikki chaat from Allahabad Chaat Bhandar. The second one was just phenomenal.
The penultimate stop was the famous Hotel 786. Since we were quite full, we just tried the chicken tikkiya over here.
Our final stop was Madras Hotel, a name recommended by Kriti's grandfather. He has been a regular over here since his young days. Here we polished off some chicken biryani and murg musallam.
The fascinating stories and anecdotes shared by Dwarika Ji all through made this food tour a memorable experience.