Bengaluru Airport T2 hosts ten-day Odia food festival

Pakhala and chhena poda feature at Odisha on a Plate, a ten-day food festival at the 080 Lounge in Bengaluru Airport’s Terminal 2.

Chefs Ranveer Brar and Abinas Nayak curated the menu. Nayak, who is from Odisha, helped select the dishes.

The spread includes kukuda besara tarkari, a mustard-based chicken preparation, and jhola, a light chicken curry. Besara is a ground-mustard gravy used with fish or chicken. The menu also includes dahibara aludum, which pairs hot dum aloo with cold dahi bara.

Vegetarian dishes include dalma, made with lentils and seasonal vegetables, and santula, tempered parboiled vegetables. Nayak described Odia food as spanning tribal, coastal and temple dishes.

Brar said Odisha and Karnataka share the use of millets and biodiversity in their food traditions. The menu includes vegetarian dishes as well as chicken and fish preparations.