THERE are very few places in Bhubaneshwar where you can get an authentic and complete Oriya meal. People�s homes, of course, are always there. But it is not everybody who is lucky to gain entry into them, much less be invited to sit down with the family to dinner and partake of the Oriya meal on the table.

So the next best alternative is a restaurant serving Oriya cuisine. Or, as in the case of �Dalma� in Old Bhubaneshwar, a restaurant serving �tasteful Orissan cuisine�.

Dalma, of course, is the most popular vegetarian dish in the state�s cuisine. It is an all-vegetable food, brinjal, tomato, white pumpkin, papaya, cauliflower and several other vegetables chopped fine and cooked in ahrar dal to which a tadka of punch photton and red chillies is given are added. When you are talking about Oriya cuisine, you are talking about Dalma. And this, in Bhubaneshwar, also means the restaurant by the same name.

It is a simple but clean and fairly upmarket eatery. All granite, steel and glass, with a large frame put up inside the restaurant of pictures of all of Orissa�s freedom fighters. The service is quick and efficient. And the menu is divided into two segments. An a la carte menu and the thali menu. The thali is a vegetarian thali and it costs Rs. 30. That is Rs. 30 for an Oriya meal consisting of Dalma, plain rice, special rice, smashed potato fry, spinach, fried vegetable, vegetable curry and papad. The menu does not change except in the choice of the fried vegetable and vegetable curry

every day. You ask for anything additional in the thali, they charge you Rs. 7 extra per item. In the a la carte section, the choice of food is between vegetarian and non-vegetarian. Mutton or Chicken Kassa (that is a fry) for Rs. 45 and Mutton or Chicken Curry for Rs. 25 only. This is one of the few eateries in Bhubaneshwar where you can get chicken. And chicken in an Oriya preparation. Then there is a fish curry rice/roti for Rs. 40, the fish being the catch of the day, and a Prawn Curry for Rs. 30. When the hilsa is in season, the Dalma restaurant serves it for Rs. 30 a portion. The local wild mushroom also features on the menu. Dalma does a mushroom curry for Rs. 20. And a paneer curry for Rs. 20 as well.