Pakhala (fermented watery rice or soaked rice) was the flavour of the day as Odisha observed “Pakhala Diwas” on Monday.

Lunch across the state in all kinds of households irrespective of their social status featured a bowl of fresh pakhala, the staple Odia food during the summer.

While some served it with assorted side items like vegetable fries and fish fry, elsewhere people had pakhala with a slice of onion and potato fry depending on their economic and social status. Every year, March 20 is celebrated as Pakhala Diwas.

Organisations like Saheed Nagar Puja Committee, the best-known puja committee of the state, organised a mass lunch featuring pakhala and its accessories. Leaders cutting across party lines, including Bhubaneswar mayor Sulochana Das, turned up to attend the mass lunch.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik tweeted a picture of pakhala in a bowl with all its accessories, wishing people on the day. Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan tweeted a picture of himself savouring pakhala for lunch.

The Odisha tourism department posted a series of tweets to mark the day.

One of the tweets said, “Grated ginger and roasted cumin seeds not only add aroma but elevate the overall taste. Known as Subasa Pakhala, this recipe finds a place in the Chappan Bhog (56 kinds of cuisines) offered to Lord Jagannath in Puri.”

In fact, pakhala, which is an inalienable part of Odia cuisine, is intrinsically attached not only to the kitchens but also to the emotions of the Odias.

Though people started celebrating the day in 2015, it got a fillip in 2018 when Naveen invited former President Pranab Mukherjee, former Prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda, senior BJP leader L.K. Advani and CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury to share pakhala with him at Naveen Niwas.

These leaders were in Bhubaneswar for the release of “The Tall Man Biju Patnaik”, a book on former chief minister Biju Patnaik (Naveen’s father). The pictures of their lunch with Naveen at his residence had gone viral on social media.

A pakhala lover Naveen himself has expressed his strong liking for the dish on several occasions in the past.

“Odia cuisine has its own identity and I like pakhala the most,” he once remarked.

Advisor of Saheed Nagar Puja Committee, Manorajan Das, said: “Pakhala is traditionally prepared by keeping leftover rice in an earthen pot with some water and with a small amount of curd or lemon added to it. It is relished most during the summer months — March, April, May June and mid-July — when the mercury soars. All guests enjoyed the food ”

Daily wagers, in particular, are fond of ‘pakhala’ because of two reasons — one that it is cheap and easy to prepare and another that it keeps their bodies cool.

They eat it before going out for work and also have it for lunch. It replenishes the salt and water lost by the body during manual work. But people of other classes, too, enjoy ‘pakhala’, many of them making their own additions to make it tastier or tangier.