What is Indian food? If you ask a Caucasian, he would probably say Chicken Tikka Masala and Butter Naan. But the real answer is, there’s no one thing called “Indian Food”. How do you define it, then? That’s the question that the TV show Raja Rasoi aur Anya Kahaaniyan tries to answer. I mentioned this show briefly in my list of favourite TV shows of all time and believe that it now needs its own post.
Raja, Rasoi aur Anya Kahaaniyan is probably the most comprehensive look into what Indian food is. Each episode takes a look into a different part of Indian cuisine, divided carefully using state/region or cities. They discuss the following parameters for each of these cuisines
- History of the cuisine
- History of the various produce being used in these cuisines, along with their country of origin and when they came to India
- Which meat is used where and why
- The evolution of the cuisine over centuries
- The role of royal families in preserving these cuisines
My favourite episodes over 4 seasons, in chronological order are the ones below
My Favourite Episodes
- S01E01 – Jodhpur and Jaipur
- S01E03 – Delhi and Rampur
- S01E04 – Jammu and Kashmir
- S01E05 – Amritsar and Punjab
- S01E08 – Lucknow and Mehmudabad
- S01E11 – Gujarat
- S02E01 – Hyderabad
- S02E04 – Telangana and Andhra Pradesh
- S02E05 – Pondicherry
- S02E06 – Kolkata
- S02E07 – Mangalore
- S02E08 – Goa
- S02E09 – Maharashtra
- S02E15 – Mumbai
- S02E19 – Uttarakhand
- S02E20 – Madhya Pradesh
- S03E01 – Bikaner
- S03E02 – Bhopal
- S03E03 – Kochi
Overall, it seems that the only Indian cuisine I don’t love is Eastern and North Eastern.
The narration by Manwendra Tripathy is very good and I really enjoy the appearances of Pushpesh Pant in most of the episodes.
I am watching the entire series again for the second time and really enjoying it. If you like Indian food and interested to know more about it, I definitely recommend this show. Streaming on EpicOn (All Seasons), Netflix (Only 1 season) and Discovery+ (First 3 seasons).
Also, fuck the Nagas for eating dog meat.
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