We love a food detour, and chancing upon lesser-known but relevant dishes gives our appetite much to look forward to. Anuradha Medhora has set up Charoli Foods, a legacy cuisine platform in Bandra in 2015, with the intent to revive and document the cuisine patronised by the royals of Malwa (Madhya Pradesh). During one of our chats, she shared about the interestingly titled mutton dahi vada whose roots trace back to Sailana district of Malwa. “Maharaja Digvijay Singh’s book mentions a dahi vada that his father Raja Singh Dilipji created. Very few royals are known to cook themselves, and Dilip Singh is a rare expectation, which is why his recipes are preserved and documented,” she tells us, as she reveals the fascinating back story. “The king stumbled upon his passion for cooking when he was lost in the jungle, and had no khansama in tow to cook for him. For the first time, he attempted the junglee maas,” Medhora explains.

Anuradha Medhora