What a thali is
Thali simply means plate. In Rajasthan it also means the whole idea of a meal: everything at once, each taste in its own bowl, the cook's whole kitchen in front of you.
One plate, many dishes: the thali holds wet dishes in bowls and dry things directly on the plate: breads, rice, papad, a spoon of pickle.
The balance: a good thali is planned so that every taste appears. Sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent and astringent, the six tastes of Indian cooking.
Facts to know
- The plate
- Steel, brass, bell metal, or silver for weddings
- The bowls
- Katori, small bowls set round the rim
- Usual count
- Anywhere from six bowls to more than a dozen
- Price style
- Usually a fixed price, unlimited refills
- Served by
- Waiters who circle with pots and baskets
- Refills: in a thali house, men with buckets and baskets keep moving down the tables, filling any bowl that looks low. It is a performance.
- Vegetarian by default: most of Rajasthan's merchant families never cooked meat, and most thali houses follow them. Royal non-vegetarian dishes come separately.
- Cooked in ghee: clarified butter carries the flavour. Our grandmother judged a thali by whether you could see the ghee shining on the dal.
- Not a tasting menu: a thali is not served in courses. Everything arrives together, and you move between the bowls as you like.
Bowl by bowl, what you are looking at
When the thali lands, it can look like a puzzle. Here is the map, starting with the dishes almost every Rajasthani thali includes.
Dal, the centre of the plate
- What it is: lentils cooked soft and tempered with cumin, garlic, dried red chilli and ghee. In Rajasthan it is often panchmel, a mix of five lentils.
- How to eat it: pour it over rice, scoop it with bread or, above all, break baati into it.
Baati and churma
- Baati: hard rolls of coarse wheat dough baked until the crust cracks, then broken open and soaked in ghee. Heavy, nutty and wonderful.
- Churma: baati crushed with ghee, sugar or jaggery and cardamom into a sweet crumble. Our dal baati churma recipe has the method.
Gatte ki sabzi
- What it is: gram-flour dumplings, boiled, sliced and simmered in a tangy yoghurt gravy.
- Why it matters: it was invented for months without fresh vegetables. It is on almost every Rajasthani thali.
Kadhi
- What it is: a yoghurt and gram-flour curry tempered with cumin, fenugreek and red chilli, sometimes with soft fried pakodi in it.
- How it tastes: Rajasthani kadhi is thinner and sharper than the Punjabi kind. It is perfect over rice.
Ker sangri
- What it is: a dry, tangy dish of ker, a small sour desert berry, and sangri, the dried beans of the khejri tree, cooked with spices and oil.
- Why it matters: the classic desert dish, once food of the poor and now on palace menus. Our ker sangri explainer tells its story.
The seasonal vegetable
- What it is: whatever is good that month. Winter brings fenugreek, peas, carrots and mustard greens. Summer brings gourds and kachri, a small desert melon.
- How to spot it: it is the one dish that changes every visit. Ask what it is. The waiter will be pleased you noticed.
Papad ki sabzi, mangodi and the clever curries
- Papad ki sabzi: lentil wafers broken into a spiced yoghurt gravy at the last moment. Desert ingenuity in a bowl.
- Mangodi: small sun-dried lentil dumplings, cooked with potato or in a thin curry. More common in home kitchens.
Breads
- Wheat: thin phulka rotis, puffed over the flame, and sometimes fried puri.
- Millet and maize: in winter, thick bajre ki roti of pearl millet and makki ki roti of maize, with white butter and jaggery. Missi roti, with gram flour and spices, appears too.
Rice and khichdi
- Rice: plain or with cumin, served towards the end with dal or kadhi.
- Khichdi: some thalis add a soft khichdi of rice and lentils, or bajre ki khichdi, millet and lentils, in winter.
Chutney, pickle, papad and raita
- Chutneys: a fierce garlic and red chilli lahsun ki chutney, a green coriander chutney, sometimes a sweet one of raw mango.
- Pickles and papad: a spoon of lime, mango or chilli pickle, and a crisp roasted or fried papad. Raita: yoghurt with tiny fried gram-flour balls, called boondi raita.
The sweets
- Year-round: churma, moong dal halwa, jalebi, malpua or a small laddoo.
- Seasonal: ghevar in the monsoon, sesame sweets in January. Our Rajasthani sweets guide covers them all.
The order we eat it in
There is no rule book, and a Rajasthani aunt will happily eat her sweet first. But our family has an order that keeps the meal from collapsing halfway.
Taste everything first: take a small bite of each bowl with a piece of roti before you commit. It tells you what to ask to be refilled.
Breads with the dry dishes: roti with ker sangri, gatte or the vegetable. Tear the bread with your right hand and use it to pinch the food.
Facts to know
- Start
- A little of each dish, to taste
- Middle
- Breads with the curries, baati with dal
- End
- Rice with dal or kadhi, then buttermilk
- Sweets
- Any time, often alongside
- Baati into dal: break the baati into pieces, let it soak in dal and ghee, and eat it as a course of its own. It is filling, so pace yourself.
- Sweets alongside: a bite of churma between savoury mouthfuls is perfectly correct. Rajasthani meals mix sweet and savoury throughout.
- Rice last: rice comes near the end, with dal or kadhi poured over it. Many people take only a little.
- Finish with chaach: a glass of salted buttermilk with roasted cumin helps the meal settle. Then, ideally, sleep.
- Don't eat it all: a thali is designed to be more than enough. Choose your favourites and let the waiters refill those.
Local tip
Baati is the trap. Eat one, then decide whether you really want a second. Our grandfather's rule was that the second baati is for people with no plans that afternoon.
Thali manners, and how to say enough
Rajasthani hospitality has its own word: manuhar, the loving insistence of a host who keeps filling your plate. Knowing how to receive it, and how to stop it, is half the meal.
Right hand only: eat with your right hand, even if you are left-handed. The left can hold a glass or pass a dish. Spoons are perfectly fine in restaurants.
Wash first: there will be a basin near the dining hall. Wash before and after.
- Stopping the refills: put your hand flat over the bowl or the plate and say, with a smile, that you are full. In Hindi, bas, enough.
- Saying it twice: a host is expected to insist. Saying no once is rarely enough. A second, firm, smiling no is understood.
- Don't waste: leaving food is considered wasteful. Take small refills rather than large ones you cannot finish.
- Shared dishes: never touch a serving dish with a hand that has been in your mouth, and don't offer food from your own plate.
- On the floor: in homes and temples you may sit cross-legged on the floor, with the thali on a low stool. Never point your feet at the food.
- Thank the cook: a compliment to the cook is always welcome. Our etiquette guide has more.
One state, several thalis
Rajasthan is the size of a country, and its thalis change with the land. Eat one in Jaipur and another in Jaisalmer and you will taste the difference in the first mouthful.
Dhundhar, the Jaipur thali
- The style: rich and generous, the food of a merchant capital. Plenty of ghee, gatte, kadhi, dal baati churma and a long sweet list.
- Look for: mawa sweets, moong dal halwa in winter and ghevar in the rains. Our food of Jaipur guide has more.
Mewar, the Udaipur thali
- The style: greener hill country, so more maize, fresh vegetables and buttermilk. Some dals are a little sweeter, from the Gujarati border.
- Look for: makki ki roti in winter, and the temple-influenced sweets of nearby Nathdwara. See our food of Udaipur guide.
Marwar, the Jodhpur thali
- The style: drier and more fiery, built on millet, gram flour and dried desert produce, with the bright red Mathania chillies of the region.
- Look for: panchkuta, a mix of five desert ingredients, and bajra roti with garlic chutney. Our Jodhpur food guide explains it.
Jaisalmer and the deep desert
- The style: the most frugal and ingenious kitchen of all, cooked with very little water, with dried berries, beans and millet.
- Look for: ker sangri at its best, and dishes made with buttermilk instead of water. Our Jaisalmer food guide goes further.
Bikaner and Shekhawati
- The style: merchant country again, with famous snacks and sweets. Bikaner's thali comes with a side of its crisp bhujia.
- Look for: milk sweets and rasgullas in Bikaner. See our Bikaner food guide.
How the thali changes through the year
Our cook can tell the month from her own thali. The breads change in November, the vegetables in March, and the sweets with every festival.
Winter, November to February: millet and maize breads with white butter and jaggery, mustard greens, fresh peas and fenugreek, and garlic chutney. The best season for a thali.
Around Makar Sankranti: sesame sweets and til laddoo appear in January, and some families make khichda, a festival dish of grains and lentils.
- Spring, March and April: the last winter vegetables, and lighter food as the heat returns. Around Holi, gujiya and malpua join the sweets.
- Summer, April to June: lighter dishes, more buttermilk, kachri and dried vegetables, raw mango chutney and aam panna. Thalis taste best at lunch in a cool room.
- The monsoon, July to September: pakoras, fresh greens for a few weeks, and ghevar around Teej. Read our piece on ghevar and Teej.
- Diwali, October or November: the sweet bowls overflow with mohanthal, laddoos and barfis. Our Diwali festival guide describes the season.
Where we take guests for a thali
A thali is only as good as its kitchen and its waiters. We keep our list to places we are sure of, and describe the rest by kind.
Facts to know
- Jaipur
- LMB, Johari Bazaar, for a thali at lunch
- Udaipur
- Natraj Dining Hall, unlimited vegetarian thali
- For a show
- Chokhi Dhani, Jaipur, thali on leaf plates
- For refinement
- The palace hotels, on request
- Best time
- Lunch
LMB, Jaipur
- What it is: Laxmi Mishthan Bhandar, known as LMB, is a sweet shop, vegetarian restaurant and hotel in one in Johari Bazaar.
- Why go: a thali at lunch after a morning in the walled city, then a sweet from the counters on the way out.
Natraj Dining Hall, Udaipur
- What it is: a long-running dining hall loved by local families, known for its unlimited vegetarian Rajasthani thali.
- Why go: simple, busy and very good value. Go at lunch, arrive hungry and let the waiters keep filling your bowls.
Chokhi Dhani, Jaipur
- What it is: a large village-themed resort on the edge of the city, where a thali is served on leaf plates with folk performers around you.
- Honest note: it is touristy, but children love it and the food is honest. Best for families on a first evening.
The palace hotels
- What they do: most of the palace hotels will serve a refined Rajasthani thali if you ask, often on silver or brass.
- Where: Rambagh Palace, The Oberoi Rajvilas and Samode Haveli in Jaipur, and the lakeside hotels of Udaipur.
A family kitchen
- What it is: the best thali we know is never on a menu. It is cooked by a family for guests, with dishes that change daily.
- How: our haveli cooking class ends with exactly that meal, and our private palace dinner can be served as a royal thali.
Local tip
Ask the waiter what is special today. Thali houses often have one dish that is not on the board, and the regulars know to ask for it.
The royal thali, and the meat dishes
In the old palaces, a feast was served on silver to nobles sitting in long rows, and the kitchens worked for days. A few of those dishes survive on special evenings.
Silver and gold: royal and wedding thalis were laid on silver, sometimes with gilded bowls, a sign of the host's standing.
Laal maas: the great Rajput mutton curry, red with dried Mathania chillies. Our laal maas recipe has the story.
- Safed maas: mutton in a pale sauce of yoghurt, cream and ground nuts, mild and rich. The dish for guests who love flavour but not chilli.
- Jungli maas: the hunter's dish, meat cooked with little more than ghee, chillies and salt. Kitchens can prepare it with a day's notice.
- Maas ke soole: smoked skewers of marinated meat, a winter evening dish on a palace terrace.
- How to have one: we arrange royal thalis at palace hotels and in haveli courtyards. See food and royal kitchens.
The pangat, a thali for a whole village
At a village wedding, the thali is not served at a table. Hundreds of guests sit in long rows on the ground, and the hosts themselves walk the lines with buckets.
What a pangat is: the old way of serving a community feast, with guests seated cross-legged in rows called pangat, and food served by the host family.
The plates: traditionally pattal, plates stitched from dried leaves, with small leaf bowls called dona. They are thrown away after the meal and return to the soil.
- The servers: brothers, uncles and cousins of the host move down the rows with dal, puris, sabzi and sweets. Serving is an honour, not a chore.
- The cooks: the food is made in huge iron cauldrons by halwais hired for the day, who start before dawn.
- The menu: puri, a potato curry, dal, a dry vegetable, raita and two or three sweets, often boondi laddoos or moong dal halwa.
- Today: most city weddings now use buffets, but the pangat survives in villages and at temple and community feasts. If you are invited, accept, and eat what you are served.
- With us: we can sometimes arrange for guests to join a community meal through families we know. It is not a show, and we only do it where you will be welcome.
Vegetarian, Jain, vegan and other diets
Rajasthan is one of the easiest places on earth to eat vegetarian. The harder questions are ghee, onions and wheat.
Vegetarian: almost every thali house is purely vegetarian. You will rarely need to explain.
Jain: strict Jain food avoids onion, garlic, potatoes and other root vegetables. Ask for a Jain thali, and good kitchens understand at once.
- Vegan: ghee, butter, yoghurt and milk are in almost everything. Ask clearly for no ghee and no dairy, and tell us in advance so we can brief the kitchen.
- Gluten-free: millet, maize and rice make it easier than you think, but wheat baati and puri are everywhere, and asafoetida is often mixed with wheat. Carry a translated card.
- Nut allergies: nuts appear in sweets and royal gravies. Tell us before you arrive and we will brief every kitchen.
- Chilli: ask for kam mirch, less chilli. Most Rajasthani dishes are spiced rather than fiery, but garlic chutney is not.
What most visitors miss
Most first-timers eat the thali, take a photograph and leave defeated. The regulars notice the small things.
The ghee pot: a server often comes round with a small pot of ghee for the baati and the dal. Say yes once. Say no the second time.
The bread runner: the hot rotis come straight from the kitchen, a few at a time. Wait for a fresh one rather than taking a cold one off the plate.
- The order of the waiters: dal first, vegetables next, breads constantly, rice towards the end. The rhythm tells you how far through the meal you are.
- The sweet that is not listed: many halls serve an extra sweet on festival days. Look at the table next to you.
- The after-meal ritual: fennel seeds and sugar crystals, saunf and mishri, are offered at the door to freshen the mouth and help digestion.
- The rest that follows: locals plan nothing for the hour after a thali. Our Jaipur itinerary builds that rest in.