Maharashtrian cuisine covers a range from being mild to very spicy dishes. Bajri, Wheat, rice, jowar, vegetables, lentils and fruit form important components of Maharashtrian diet. Popular dishes include puran poli, ukdiche Modak and batata wada. The staple dishes of Maharashtrian cuisine are based on Bajri, Jowar and Tandul. The cuisine of Maharashtra has its own distinctive flavors and tastes. It can be divided into two major sections–the coastal and the interior. A part of Maharashtra, which lies on the coast of the Arabian Sea, is loosely called the Konkan and boasts of its own Konkani cuisine, which is a homogeneous combination of Malvani, Gaud Saraswat Brahmin, and Goan cuisines. Besides the coastal cuisine, the interior of Maharashtra—the Vidarbha area, has its own distinctive cuisine known as the Varadi cuisine. As in many states of India, rice is the staple food grain in Maharashtra. Like the other coastal states, there is an enormous variety of vegetables in the regular diet and lots of fish and coconuts are used.Grated coconuts spice many kinds of dishes, but coconut oil is not very widely used as a cooking medium. Peanuts and cashew nuts are widely used in vegetables and peanut oil is the main cooking medium. Another feature is the use of kokum, a deep purple berry that has a pleasing sweet and sour taste. Kokum, most commonly used in an appetizer-digestive called the sol kadhi, is served chilled. During summer another drink called panna made from bioled raw mango is consumed. Rest of the Maharashtra apart from Konkan, uses ground nuts, jaggary, wheat, jowar and bajra extensively. Maharashtrian meal consists of rice and bread both along with 'varan'/'aamtee' – a type of lentils and spiced veggies. Maharashtrian dishes for 'UPwas' have a special mention as most of them are favourites for life time e.g. sabudana khichadi.
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