Karah Prasad is made with equal quantities of whole wheat, sugar and butter. It is offered to pilgrims at all Gurudwaras. In terms of ingredients it is similar to wheat halwa but is made with double the quantity of water.

In Kashi Vishwanath temple, the panchamrit abhishekam has a little Bhang mixed. This is distributed only in small quantities and only to male devotees

A kitchen for Laddoos called Boondi Potu is set up outside the temple at Tirumala. Besan is fried in this kitchen and is then transported in steel trays by conveyor belt to the Podi Potu inside the temple where the rest of the Laddoo making is completed. The finished Laddoos are also despatched to sales counters through conveyors.

The Tirupati Laddoo has obtained the geographical indication (GI) tag in 2009 and thus only the Tirupati temple can produce and sell under the name Tirupati Laddu.

The month long Khichidi utsav in Vrindavan is very famous and draws a number of devotees. The Radha Vallabhji Mandir serves a special khichdi with several varieties of pickles. This year the festival starts on 1st January 2025. The Khichadi is made of rice, ghee, dry fruits and hot spices. It is accompanied with vegetables and pickles. The deity appears in different disguises such as toy seller or Saawariya each day.

At Vaishno Devi no fruits or food stuff are allowed as offerings. The Prasad offered to devotees includes dry fruits and dried apple. Besides, a silver coin, Chunri and Bhajan booklets are also offered.

The Chinese Kali temple stands at China Town (Tangra) in Kolkata. About 60 years back, the temple was just two black stones under a tree worshipped as Kali. A Chinese boy was miraculously cured of a terrible illness when he was brought to Kali. The grateful parents built a temple for Kali. It has a Chinese priest. Chow Mein is offered as prasad at the Chinese Kali Temple. Such practices are not unusual. In the dry Spiti area of Himachal Pradesh where fruits and vegetables are rare, you can find biscuits and chocolates offered to the deity.

The Bene Israeli community are said to have escaped persecution at the hands of the then Greek rulers of Asia Minor in 2nd cent BCE. Their ship was wrecked off the Konkan coast and 7 families washed up dead. They are believed to have been revived by a Jewish prophet Elijah. This story is similar to the origin myth of the Chitpavan Brahmins of same area.

About 4000 of Bene Israelis are in Mumbai. They are different from the Baghdadi Jews who came to Mumbai about 300 years ago. The Sassoon family of Baghdadis are one of the builders of modern Mumbai. The Bene Israelis follow different professions but were traditionally oil pressers, known as Shaniwari Telis who did not work on Saturday, the Jewish sabbath. This was the trait that helped Jewish visitors identify them as co religionists, otherwise it is impossible to distinguish from other Konkani Maharashtrians.

While they claim descent from Aaron, brother of Moses, not all modern Jews accepted them. DNA tests have shown that they have middle eastern genes, to the delight of the community.
Source: Shoba Narayan, ” Food & Faith”

Each Kancheepuram idli weighs 1.5 kg. It is a cylindrical idli about 18 inches long and is cylindrical. It is flavoured with several spices and is cooked in mandara leaves in cylindrical bamboo containers for three hours. Two such idlis are offered to the deity each day.

Puri is one of the Char Dhams of India, the others being Rameswaram, Badrinath and Dwarka. Vishnu is believed to bathe in Rameswaram, meditate in Badrinath, dine at Puri and retire at Dwarka. In this tradition, Puri offers grand Chappan Bhog, consisting of 56 preparations. The Bhog is spread over six times during the day.

The Skanda Purana refers to the sanctity of Mahaprasad in Puri. The Mahaprasad is sacrosanct in all conditions and circumstances. Partaking the Mahaprasad can bring miracles in life.

The Mahaprasad is cooked in earthen pots in the temple kitchen which has the capacity to cook for 1 lakh people a day. The Bhog is offered to Jagannath Ji and Devi Bimala who is supposed to be Lakshmi herself. She is believed to supervise the cooking in the kitchen. The Bhog is offered to public for sale at Bhog Mandapa or Ananda Bazaar.

The ingredients for the Sadhya (feast) at the temple used to be taken by the boat. Once when the boat faced a threat, oarsmen from a village escorted the boat to the temple. In recognition of this, the Sadhya is offered to the Oarsmen from the region. The oarsmen are considered to be the deity itself. The feast is held over 60 days and crews of oarsmen are invited by rotation to participate.

Vanchipattu are riddles in the form of songs. The answers refer to food items in the life of Krishna. It is the tradition of the oarsmen to sing Vanchipattu (riddles in the form of songs) as a method of requesting the food that they would like to partake. Any food that is requested by the oarsmen is served since they are considered as deity themselves.

Mukkuruni Vinayagar in Madurai Meenakshi temple in Tamil Nadu receives this offering on Vinayaka Chaturthi each year. Once Ganpati was looking for physical work and was asked to transport some material in a cart. At the end of the work when he was asked to specify his wages for the work, Ganpati asked for 30 kgs of rice (Mukkuruni in Tamil). To mark this legend, a single modak is made with 30 kgs of rice and 30 kgs of jaggery and other material, eventually weighing about 72 kg. The cooking takes 24 hours.

The Jalebi Utsav is celebrated in Nathdwara (ShrinathJi) on the birthday of Shri Gusaiji or Shri Vitthalnathji, the youngest son of Shri Vallabhacharya. Nathdwara is the most revered Pushti Marg Kshetra and Vallabhacharya is the founder of Pushti Marg. Srinathji himself is supposed to have requested for Jalebis to be made to celebrate the birthday.

Jalebis are offered routinely in Nathdwara temple during winters. On Jalebi Utsav, the offering is special with Jalebis as large as dinner plate and 2 inches thick.