Two kitchens, one desert
The desert kitchen: shaped by scarcity. Water was precious and fresh vegetables rare, so families cooked with what kept: gram flour, lentils, millet, buttermilk, dried berries and beans.
Clever vegetarian dishes: Ker sangri is made from the dried berries of a desert shrub and the beans of the khejri tree.
Gatte: Gatte are dumplings of gram flour simmered in yoghurt.
- Nights
- Eleven, in five places
- Pace
- Big breakfasts, long lunches, free afternoons
- Best months
- November to February, or the monsoon for ghevar
- Good for
- Food lovers, home cooks, vegetarians
- Starts
- Delhi
- Ends
- Udaipur
- Papad ki sabzi: Papad ki sabzi turns a lentil wafer into a curry.
- On the roof: our grandmothers dried mangodi every summer for the lean months, and some families still do.
- The royal kitchen: shaped by abundance and the hunt, when Rajput princes went out after boar and deer.
- Laal maas: laal maas, mutton in a fierce red sauce of Mathania chillies.
- Smoke and fire: maas ke soole, smoked skewers over coals, and jungli maas, the hunter's dish of meat, ghee, salt and chilli.
- The Mughal meeting: the gentle safed maas, mutton cooked in cream and ground nuts, belongs to it.
- Today: hunting is long banned, so the game is goat or chicken, but the palace kitchens still cook these dishes well.
- Delhi, the overture: Delhi is the city of kebabs and parathas, where butter chicken was born.
- Jaipur: Jaipur has the best street breakfasts in Rajasthan and the grandest dining rooms.
- Bikaner: Bikaner is the home of bhujia, rasgulla and papad, sending its snacks all over India.
- Jodhpur: Jodhpur is the capital of the mirchi bada and the makhaniya lassi.
- Udaipur: Udaipur closes with Mewar's deep vegetarian tradition, shaped by Jain merchants and temple kitchens, and dinners on the lake.
- You will cook: lessons in family kitchens with cooks who measure in handfuls and pinches, so you leave knowing dal baati churma, gatte and proper Rajasthani chai. Our cooking class in a haveli explains how we choose the families.
Day by day, meal by meal
- Delhi to Jaipur
- A little over four hours by train or road
- Jaipur to Bikaner
- Five to six hours, the longest day
- Bikaner to Jodhpur
- Four to five hours via Deshnoke and Nagaur
- Jodhpur to Udaipur
- Five to six hours, via Ranakpur
- Udaipur to Nathdwara
- About an hour
Day 1: Old Delhi, the overture
Land and sleep: ideally a morning arrival, then a few hours' rest.
Old Delhi with a local guide: parathas fried in ghee in Paranthe Wali Gali, hot jalebi from the Old Famous Jalebi Wala on the corner of Dariba Kalan, and dahi bhalle at Natraj on Chandni Chowk.
- Dinner at Karim's: in Gali Kababian near the Jama Masjid, serving Mughlai kebabs, korma and breads since 1913.
- Or somewhere grand: Bukhara at ITC Maurya for frontier cooking from the tandoor, eaten with your hands, or Indian Accent for modern Indian cooking.
- Daulat ki chaat: in winter, set an early alarm on day two. Daulat ki chaat, a cloud of whipped milk foam with saffron and pistachio, is sold from brass trays in the old city.
- Only in the cold: roughly November to February, and it melts away once the sun warms up.
- A second night: many food lovers add one for a slower walk. Our Old Delhi food walk and food of Delhi guide have the full route.
Days 2 to 4: Jaipur, kachori, lassi and the royal table
To Jaipur: by fast train or road, a little over four hours.
A full thali for lunch: dal, gatte, kadhi, ker sangri, bajra roti and sweets, refilled until you cover your plate with your hand. Then sleep, as everyone in Jaipur does.
Masala Chowk: in the evening, beside the lit Albert Hall, it gathers branches of well-known street-food stalls into one clean, open-air courtyard. Finish with kulfi.
- The great breakfast: at about eight, the counter of Rawat Mishthan Bhandar near Sindhi Camp for pyaaz kachori, a flaky pastry of spiced onion, and mawa kachori, its sweet cousin.
- The spice shops: walk it off through the waking bazaars, where your guide explains the dried ker, the Mathania chillies and the spice blends.
- Before eleven: a lassi in a clay cup at Lassiwala on MI Road, the original rather than its imitators, and a cutting chai from Gulab Ji Chaiwala nearby.
- LMB: in Johari Bazaar, in business since the 1950s, for its counters of sweets.
- Royal dinner: the Suvarna Mahal at Rambagh Palace under gilded ceilings, or 1135 AD inside Amber Fort.
- Cooking lesson: a morning in a family kitchen learning dal baati churma: wheat rolls baked until they crack, broken into five-lentil dal and drenched in ghee, then sweet churma. Lunch is what you made.
- Late afternoon: Amber Fort, or Niro's on MI Road, opened in 1949 and still a favourite of Jaipur families for celebrations. Our food of Jaipur guide has every address.
Days 5 and 6: Bikaner, bhujia and the sweet shops
The longest drive: about five to six hours from Jaipur, with lunch at a busy roadside dhaba, which is its own education.
Evening: past the lit Rampuria havelis in the old city, with a glass of hot saffron milk.
Kote Gate at sunrise: the kachori stalls fry their first batches and the jalebi makers pipe spirals into hot oil.
- Chhotu Motu Joshi: near the station and Kote Gate, the best-known breakfast in town and famous for its rasgullas.
- A bhujia workshop: in the lanes, the dough of moth bean and gram flour pressed through a ladle into the oil. See bhujia on our Bikaner food page.
- A famous snack: Bikaneri bhujia has a Geographical Indication tag, and Haldiram's, now one of India's biggest snack companies, began as a small shop here in 1937.
- On the rooftops: papad and mangodi drying, the old desert art of preserving.
- Camel milk: after Junagarh Fort, the National Research Centre on Camel as the herds come home, with camel milk, camel-milk tea and ice cream.
- Dinner: Rajput food at your palace hotel.
Days 7 and 8: Jodhpur, mirchi bada and makhaniya lassi
The drive: about four to five hours via Deshnoke and Nagaur, arriving for a late lunch.
The clock tower at dusk: the smell of frying chillies fills the square.
Mirchi bada: the mirchi bada is a fat green chilli stuffed with spiced potato, dipped in gram-flour batter and fried until it blisters. Milder than it looks.
- Breakfast: mawa kachori at Janta Sweet Home on Nai Sarak, one of the old favourites.
- Makhaniya lassi: at Shri Mishrilal Hotel at the entrance to Sardar Market, the makhaniya lassi is thick, sweet and saffron-scented, with a lid of cream. Drink it before noon.
- Bishnoi courtyard: out to the Bishnoi villages for bajra roti and white butter in a farmer's courtyard.
- Mathania: the village that gives its name to the red chillies of laal maas.
- Lunch at Gypsy: in Sardarpura, the city's best-known thali restaurant, where the bowls keep coming. Try gulab jamun ki sabzi, sweet dumplings in a spicy gravy, once.
- Dinner: on the terrace at Umaid Bhawan Palace, or under the floodlit walls of Mehrangarh at RAAS Jodhpur. Our food of Jodhpur guide has the rest.
Days 9 to 11: Udaipur, Mewari kitchens and dinners on the water
The drive: five to six hours, broken at Ranakpur for the marble Jain temple and a quiet lunch nearby.
Sunset: a private boat on Lake Pichola.
Mewari breakfast: hot kachori with a thin, tangy kadhi, or poha, flattened rice with onion, turmeric and peanuts, a taste from neighbouring Malwa.
- In winter: makki ki roti, maize flatbreads cooked over wood, eaten with white butter, jaggery and greens.
- Natraj Dining Hall: after the City Palace, its unlimited vegetarian thali, much loved by local families.
- Afternoon lesson: with a Mewari family, for gatte, ker sangri and the art of a perfect phulka.
- Nathdwara and Eklingji: an hour north to Nathdwara, whose temple of Shrinathji has fed pilgrims for centuries, then Eklingji for the evening lamps.
- The finale: a private dinner in a palace, on the island of Jag Mandir, or at the Taj Lake Palace, the only way for non-residents to reach its island. Order safed maas and maas ke soole.
- Day twelve: fly from Udaipur to Delhi or Mumbai. Our food of Udaipur guide lists our favourite tables.
Ten dishes to eat before you leave
Pyaaz kachori
- What it is: a flaky round pastry filled with onion cooked down with spices, fried in big iron pans and eaten with tamarind and mint chutney.
- When: Jaipur's great breakfast, best before ten. Our pyaaz kachori guide tells its story.
Dal baati churma
- The family meal: every Rajasthani family claims it: hard wheat rolls baked in embers, broken into lentils with ghee.
- The sweet part: a crumble of the same dough. Read our dal baati churma recipe before you cook it.
Laal maas
What it is: mutton slow-cooked with yoghurt, garlic and dried red chillies until the sauce is a glossy dark red.
- Dhungar: sometimes smoked at the end with hot charcoal and ghee, a technique called dhungar.
- Heat: ask for it milder if you like. Our laal maas recipe explains the method.
Ker sangri
- What it is: tart desert berries and the long beans of the khejri tree, dried, then cooked with oil, spices and dried mango powder.
- The taste: of the desert itself. Our piece on ker sangri explains how it is gathered.
Gatte ki sabzi
- What it is: gram-flour dumplings boiled, sliced and simmered in a tangy yoghurt gravy.
- Why: invented for the months without fresh vegetables, and it turns up in almost every thali.
Mirchi bada
- What it is: Jodhpur's chilli fritter, stuffed with potato and fried in batter.
- How: hot from the pan with a cup of chai, ideally in the evening at the clock tower.
Bikaneri bhujia
- What it is: crisp fine strands of moth-bean and gram-flour dough, spiced with black pepper.
- The test: taste it warm in a Bikaner workshop and you will never buy a packet again without comparing.
Makhaniya lassi
What it is: Jodhpur's lassi, thick, sweet and saffron-scented, topped with cream.
- When: before noon, when it is freshest.
- Its rival: Jaipur's clay-cup lassi. Read about lassi in Jaipur.
Ghevar
- What it is: a lacy honeycomb disc of fried batter soaked in syrup and topped with rabri and pistachios.
- The season: the sweet of Teej and the monsoon, hard to find out of season. Our journal explains ghevar and Teej.
Safed maas
- What it is: mutton in milk, cream and ground nuts, with cardamom and white pepper and no red chilli at all.
- Who it's for: the gentle dish of the court, which we order for guests who love flavour but not heat.
Eating street food without regret
The longest queue: eat where it is longest and the oil hottest. Busy stalls turn food over quickly, so nothing sits.
Hot from the pan: fried food in the morning, when oil and ingredients are fresh.
- Our rule
- Hot, fresh and busy
- Best hour
- The morning
- Skip
- Raw salads, cut fruit, standing chutneys, unknown ice
- Water
- Bottled or filtered only
- Eat with
- The right hand
- What to skip: raw salads, cut fruit and chutneys that have been standing out, and ice from an unknown source.
- Lassi and buttermilk: lassi from a famous, busy shop is usually fine. Buttermilk from an unknown stall may not be.
- Go slowly at first: Rajasthani food is rich with ghee, so take a light lunch after a big breakfast on the first two days.
- Let your guide choose: ours eat at these stalls themselves, and know which are clean and which have had a bad week.
- Hands: carry sanitiser, but remember Rajasthanis eat with the right hand. Wash before and after, as everyone does.
- Before you travel: read our guide to health and safety in Rajasthan.
Where you'll stay, and where to dine
Delhi: The Imperial or The Oberoi
The Imperial: on Janpath, opened in the 1930s, close to Old Delhi for an early food walk.
- The Oberoi, New Delhi: polished and quiet.
- Either: a calm base before the lanes.
Jaipur: Rambagh Palace
- Rambagh Palace: once the home of Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II and Maharani Gayatri Devi, with the Suvarna Mahal under gilded ceilings, one of the great royal dining rooms of India.
- Samode Haveli: inside the walled city, with the breakfast bazaars on your doorstep.
Bikaner: Laxmi Niwas Palace or Bhanwar Niwas
Laxmi Niwas Palace: part of the red sandstone Lalgarh complex, the grandest stay in the city.
- Bhanwar Niwas: a Rampuria family haveli in the old city, a short walk from the bhujia lanes.
- Narendra Bhawan: a stylish boutique alternative with a strong personality.
Jodhpur: Umaid Bhawan Palace or RAAS
- Umaid Bhawan Palace: a royal home and a hotel at once, with terrace dinners facing the fort.
- RAAS Jodhpur: in the old city under Mehrangarh, minutes from the clock tower and its mirchi bada.
Udaipur: on the lake
On Pichola: the Taj Lake Palace, The Oberoi Udaivilas and The Leela Palace Udaipur all serve Rajasthani dishes alongside other menus, with views across the lake.
- In the old city: Ambrai on its ghat faces the City Palace across the water. Book ahead.
- More: our guide to rooftop dining.
When to go: a calendar of appetites
November to February, the best season: cool weather makes heavy food a pleasure, and the winter kitchen is at its richest.
The winter table: bajra rotis with white butter and jaggery, mustard greens, fresh green chickpeas, and carrot and moong dal halwas.
Gond ke laddoo: gond ke laddoo are made with edible gum to warm the body.
- November to February
- The rich winter kitchen
- 14 January
- Sesame sweets and feeni
- July and August
- Ghevar for Teej
- February or March
- Gujiya and thandai at Holi
- October or November
- Diwali sweets
- April to June
- Too hot, often above 40°C
- Only in the cold: Delhi's daulat ki chaat.
- Makar Sankranti: around 14 January the bazaars fill with sesame sweets and feeni, eaten on the rooftops between kites. See Makar Sankranti.
- Ghevar in the monsoon: in July or August the sweet shops stack it in towers for Teej. Warm, humid and sometimes wet, but the hills turn green and the bazaars fill with leheriya.
- Holi: at Holi, in February or March, homes make gujiya, sweet pastries filled with mawa, and cool thandai, spiced milk with almonds and fennel.
- Kanji vada: Jaipur makes the sour, fizzy kanji vada at Holi.
- Diwali: at Diwali, in October or November, the sweet shops work through the night and every family exchanges boxes of sweets.
- April to June: very hot, and we don't recommend a food journey then. Everyone eats lightly, and street stalls work in the early morning only.
- Dry days: some hotels and restaurants don't serve alcohol on certain national and religious holidays. Our guide to dry days and alcohol explains the rules.
Vegetarians, Jains and special diets
Vegetarian by tradition: shaped by Jain merchant families, Vaishnav temple kitchens and the Bishnoi community's reverence for life.
Everywhere: thalis, sweets and most street food are vegetarian, and many sweet shops and dining halls are entirely so.
- Meat-free towns: some, such as Pushkar, serve no meat, fish or eggs at all.
- Jain food: avoids root vegetables such as onion, garlic and potato, and many Jains eat before sunset.
- Understood on this route: every kitchen knows Jain requirements, and we pass them on in advance.
- Vegans: ghee, butter, yoghurt and milk are everywhere in Rajasthani cooking, but our cooks can adapt most dishes.
- Allergies and gluten-free: we cater for both. Bajra and maize rotis are naturally gluten-free, though wheat is used widely.
- Tell us everything: when we plan, and we brief every hotel and family kitchen.
Make it yours
A shorter week
Seven nights: keep Delhi, Jaipur and Jodhpur, and fly home from Jodhpur.
- What you keep: Old Delhi, the Jaipur breakfasts, a cooking lesson and the mirchi bada.
- What you lose: Bikaner and the lakes.
Add Jaisalmer and the desert
Two nights from Jodhpur: in Jaisalmer and a desert camp.
- The desert table: ker sangri, kadhi and millet rotis hot from the coals, with Manganiyar songs by the fire.
- More: our food of Jaisalmer guide.
Add Pushkar and its malpua
Two nights between Jaipur and Jodhpur: in a vegetarian pilgrim town.
- What to eat: malpua fried in huge iron pans, and rose products made from the town's own fields.
- Our favourites: our food of Pushkar guide.
Add Agra
- One night: in Agra, for the Taj at sunrise.
- Agra's sweets: especially petha, the translucent candied gourd. Our food of Agra guide has the details.
With crafts
- They go together: food and craft in Rajasthan.
- Combine it: with our textile and craft trail, printing cloth in the morning and eating kachori before it.
How we look after you
A private chauffeur: for the whole journey, with cold water, wipes and room for the boxes of sweets you'll be buying.
Local food guides: who grew up in the lanes, eat at these stalls themselves and know who is cooking well this season.
- Cooking lessons: with families we know, in their own kitchens, paid fairly for their time.
- Tables booked ahead: including the lakeside and palace dining rooms that fill weeks in advance.
- Trains and flights: where they save time, with airport meetings at each end.
- Your planner on WhatsApp: throughout, to find a lighter lunch when you need one, or a doctor if you ever do.
- No published prices: we quote after one conversation about what you love to eat, any diet we should know about, and how adventurous you are.
Who will love this journey, and who should choose another
Food people: food lovers, home cooks, chefs, food writers and anyone who believes the best way to understand a place is to eat its breakfast.
Vegetarians: it suits them brilliantly, and meat-eaters who want to taste the royal kitchens.
- Markets and long lunches: for travellers who enjoy conversation and are happy to rest in the afternoons.
- Less suited: to a sensitive stomach that would rather skip street food, or to travellers who want the great forts and palaces as the main event.
- Forts first: choose our Royal Rajputana, which includes plenty of good food along the way.
- Cook in one place: ask us about a longer stay in Jaipur or Udaipur with daily lessons.
- A single food day: our food and royal kitchens page shows how to add it to any journey.
