Udaipur is a lake city with a mountain-desert appetite. Rajasthani food was built for a hard, dry land — rich, long-keeping, generous with ghee and spice — and in Udaipur it comes with lake views and old-city lanes attached. Come hungry; this is not a place for light eating.
Dal baati churma is the heart of it — hard wheat baatis baked till they crack, drowned in ghee, eaten with a spiced dal, and finished with sweet, crumbly churma. It's heavy, it's celebratory, and it's the flavour of Rajasthan in one thali. Eat it slowly and don't plan much for the afternoon after.
Udaipur does breakfast and snacks properly. Kachoris — pyaaz (onion) and dal — hot and flaky, and mirchi vada, the big battered chilli fritter, are the classic morning-and-evening street eating. Add pyaaz ki kachori, samosas, and the chaat you'll find near the busier ghats and temples. This is where a lot of the city's best eating actually happens — at a counter, standing up.
For the complete picture, sit down to a Rajasthani thali — gatte ki sabzi (gram-flour dumplings in curry), ker sangri (the desert bean-and-berry dish), bajra rotis, kadhi, and more, refilled until you surrender. It's the best single way to taste the range of the region's vegetarian cooking in one sitting.
Finish with ghewar or malpua when the season's right, or a simple hot jalebi. And at least once, eat dinner on a rooftop over Lake Pichola as the palace lights come up — the food is good, but the view is the seasoning.
Udaipur feeds you as richly as it looks. On a GoRaahi Udaipur trip we steer you to the old-city kitchens and street corners worth the calories — the city tastes as good as it photographs.
Read next: Udaipur: A Field Guide
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