A culinary journey into the heart of Bastar

On a cold December evening, my husband and I left the comfort of our Jagdalpur hotel and drove some 10km south-east to the village of Kurandi, inhabited by the Bhatra tribe. Gurwari Baghel welcomed us into her home, a mud structure painted bright blue and topped by a terracotta-tiled roof. A single light bulb illuminated her kitchen where she proceeded to show us how chaprah chutney is made. Earlier that morning, at the buzzing haat (market) in Mardum (50km west of Jagdalpur), we had seen sal-leaf bowls brimming with an airy, brownish mass speckled with tiny white nodules—chaprah or the nests and eggs of red weaver ants, which is a staple in Bastar’s tribal kitchens.

Chaprah has had a glow-up in the past couple of years, making an appearance at haute tables like Masque in Mumbai and on the rim of picante glasses at the Citrus Garden Project bar in Jehan Numa Retreat, Bhopal. But Baghel showed me the traditional recipe—ground on a mortar and pestle with ginger, garlic, coriander, salt and red chilli powder. It’s tart without any souring agent, just the natural acidic nature of the ants, and makes for a piquant condiment alongside the dinner we are served.

Under a star-lit sky and by a roaring bonfire, we relished a simple but flavourful meal, which included bamboo shoot stir-fry and chicken curry, washed down with home-brewed mahua (liquor distilled from fermented mahua flowers) and salphi (naturally fermented drink extracted from the sap of date palm tree).

Chhattisgarh, carved out of Madhya Pradesh in 2000, has a high tribal population, with 30% being classified under Scheduled Tribes. The former princely state of Bastar in southern Chhattisgarh is dominated by various tribes, including Gond, Maria, Muria, Bhatra, Halba and Dhurwa, which together make up about 70% of the population.

The district’s administrative capital Jagdalpur is a great base to explore Bastar’s unique and varied tribal culture. Most of the action is centred on the haat, which takes place at fixed locations. “There’s a haat somewhere in Bastar every day of the week; in Tokapal on Mondays, in Mardum on Saturdays, at Jagdalpur’s Sanjay Market on Sundays, and so on,” said Ashit Dubey, who has been a Bastar guide for nearly three decades, and has long-standing relationships with tribal communities. Babbuji, as he is known to all and sundry, took us to various markets, pointing out local produce.

Apart from chaprah, we saw tall piles of mahua flowers, various tubers, beans, lentils, and millets, bamboo shoots, jeera pulla (a reddish flower that’s used as a souring agent), and a mind-boggling variety of leafy vegetables, including the extremely sour amari bhaji.

Then there’s suksi, smoked and dried fish that’s used to flavour assorted dishes. We got a taste of it at Kanker Palace Heritage, a homestay run by the titular royal family of Kanker, about 160km north of Jagdalpur. The suksi purga (curry) flavoured with jeera pulla has a strong odour and is rather pungent, even for my Marathi palate that’s grown up on sukat (dried shrimp) and other dried fish.

Apart from tribal fare, the larger Chhattisgarhi cuisine revolves around rice, which is not surprising since the state is considered the rice bowl of central India. A typical meal involves a mound of rice along with curry, a dry vegetable preparation, and chutney. Even the roti, if served, is made of rice. At Kanker Palace Heritage, our meal was accompanied by paan roti—the dough is made by mixing cooked rice and rice flour, the thick, hand-pressed roti is wrapped in sal or banana leaves, and cooked in a clay pot over cow-dung cakes.

Unfortunately, most of this cuisine is restricted to homes and a handful of restaurants. Apart from the government-initiated chain of Gadh Kalewa eateries across the state, you’d be hard-pressed to find Chhattisgarh’s local cuisine. Most dining establishments in Jagdalpur seem to serve the staple north Indian, Chinese, and Italian trifecta. Even our swanky hotel with its three restaurants didn’t offer any local dishes.

I did find some traditional fare at Bastar Heritage Cafe in Jagdalpur. “We had a larger menu of local specialities but most people want fast food, so we pared it down,” said Mohit Bhanjdeo, the cafe’s co-founder. What remains is a handful of rice-based dishes like fara, chilla and chausela. Fara (also farra) is a breakfast staple across Chhattisgarh. Like paan roti, the dough is made by mixing rice flour and cooked rice, then rolled into cylindrical shapes, which are steamed and tempered with mustard seeds, asafoetida, curry leaves, and chillies. A variation of fara is stuffed with spiced besan mixture. Unlike the better-known besan or moong dal chilla, Chhattisgarhi chilla is made of rice flour and the batter is unfermented. We rounded off our meal at Bastar Heritage Cafe with chausela, deep-fried rice poori tinged with cumin and served with a tangy-spicy tomato chutney.

Ultimately, what stayed with me in Bastar was not a single dish, but the way eating became a way of being present. Good food rarely announces itself—drive a little farther, eat what’s offered, and somewhere along the way, the flavours of the region come into focus.

Prachi Joshi is a Mumbai-based travel and food writer.