Who better to explore Bihari food with than Ravi Kishan? The star recently met with food journalist Kunal Vijayakar to talk about food; the actor and MP who received acclaim for his role in the Kiran Rao directorial Laapata Ladies represents Gorakhpur in the Lok Sabha and took Ravi to explore the food of the city in a new show titled Poll Curry with Kunal Vijayakar, which will highlight political leaders and their love for food, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
“Litti chokha suna hai?” Ravi asks Kunal and the latter replies that despite having heard of the famous Bihari staple, he has never tasted it. The duo head to a restaurant in Gorakhpur and Kishan gets to work on making Baati Chokha from scratch using roasted gram flour, ghee, brinjal, tomatoes, jaggery, mustard oil, garlic, lemon and salt.
“Agar lamba jeena hai to desi khana hai,” Kishan quips as they discuss the merits of local food. Kishan even sang a song about how pizza, burgers and cutlets should be avoided as they are bad for your system and local diet is the key to a longer life. Kishan used a traditional coal chulha to roast his litti and also threw in paneer litti for Vijayakar who loves paneer.
Kishan also talked about his daily diet and revealed that he follows a vegetarian diet, which includes juice, soaked almonds, walnuts, and jaggery. "I am avoiding food these days. I lost nine kgs during this election campaign," Kishan said. The actor also shared that during the campaign time, he only drank coconut water, chaanch, and sattu juice to keep himself hydrated.
"I'm vegetarian and I start my morning with juice, I usually drink it with some nuts. I keep eating akhrot (walnut) and gud. But I'm avoiding food, I lost 9 kgs during this election. I'm mostly on coconut water, chaanch, sattu throughout the day. I have to walk a lot and I have to talk a lot and at every meeting I have to speak, even if it's for 10 minutes but I have to speak constantly," Kishan shared.