Raita time, raita place

This delicious, cooling side dish is unique to North India but different versions of it exist across the world. So, where did it come from?

- VIR SANGHVI

Raita is the silent guest at nearly every meal in North India. Silent, because it never gets the credit it deserves. We enjoy it but we don’t talk too much about it. In fact, as I discovered while researching this piece, nobody is even sure who invented it or where it came from.

This much we do know: Raita is a North Indian thing. You don’t find it in the East. You don’t even find it in the West. It does not exist in the South.

Take my own example. When I grew up, there was hardly ever anything resembling a raita on the dining table. There may have been some kind of raita, usually boondi raita, at parties or big dinners. (Why boondi? Well, because Gujaratis like anything fried.) But on an everyday basis, the staples on our table were papad, pickle and chutneys and sometimes, plain dahi. Raita never showed up.

Contrast that with now. Because I am married to a Punjabi, there is nearly always some kind of raita at dinner (though never boondi raita, sadly). No meal seems complete without it.

When I lived in Kolkata, I never saw any raita on the dining table at the homes of Bengali friends and indeed, there is no Bong raita tradition. Nor is there a South Indian raita tradition. South Indians eat more curd/yoghurt than the rest of us. But they like it by itself.