Food for thought

Union ministers Radha Mohan Singh and Ram Vilas Paswan held makar sankranti get-togethers on Thursday. The fare on offer was typical of the breakfast served in Bihar to celebrate the festival - dahi-chura (curd and flattened rice), sweets, khichri and chokha. Only a few ministers of note turned up at Singh's breakfast, but Rajnath Singh and V K Singh were present at the lunch hosted by Paswan. Journalists and other guests busied themselves comparing the quality of food served at the two places. There were also those who were flummoxed by a "paper sweet" served at Singh's residence. The sweet, a favourite in Andhra Pradesh and popularly known as Pootharekulu, is made of jaggery wrapped in rice flour batter that resembles a piece of folded paper. Many, unaware of how the sweet is expected to be eaten, were seen trying to carefully unravel the "paper" from the jaggery.