The Accidental cuisine of Odisha
It was a pleasant evening of a tiring day in the late 1940s. A pastry chef named Sudarsan Sahu was shutting his small sweet shop and decided to mix sugar in the leftover chenna [a form of cheese] and put it on an Indian chullah by-mistakenly, and on the next day, a magnificent dish was introduced named chenna poda [baked cheese]. Then he made some small modifications and presented this dish which started its journey from a small village named Dasapalla, Nayagarh of Odisha and now touching the heart of most Indians. It may be noted here that the district administration in Nayagarh has asked all the Odisha government offices to celebrate “World Chhena Poda Day” on April 11. Nayagarh district administration has already applied for GI tag to ' Chhena Poda ', a popular baked cheese dessert of Odisha. Main Ingredients : Chhena [cheese], sugar, cashew nuts, raisins, cardamom