India, July 12 -- The ghosts of breakfasts past lie tucked into our cities' streets, even centuries on. In Mumbai, one can still buy a fortifying fisherman's breakfast of fresh bhakris and fish curry at dawn. In Delhi, crusty spice-flecked bedmi puris with roots in rural Uttar Pradesh are eaten, piping hot, with a thin potato gravy. Rice cakes and rice gruels, often made from local varieties of the grain, remain common. In Kerala, this kanji is paired with mango pickle or fried fish. A fermented version appears as panta bhat in West Bengal, and as pakhala in Odisha. In Tamil Nadu, ragi flour mixed with fermented milk and salt is the cooling neeragaram. In Rajasthan, a nourishing raab or fermented gruel is made from millet flours, whisked with lightly spiced buttermilk. Seasonal variations account for changes in local produce and climate. They remain a mainstay for the blue-collar worker too. Take a look. l Vadas and meat: Deep-fried, spice-flecked onion savala vadas are paired with chunks of mutton or chaap, cooked in a thin gravy of roasted coconut, coconut milk and spices. The meal is available at Kerala's thattukadas or tea shops, famous for also being sites of lively political debate. l Naan and nihari: In no-frills breakfast joints across this city, bowls of piping-hot and fatty paya nihari made with goat's trotters, served with a dimpled and browned four-cornered or char-koni naan. If this seems rather lavish, well, it was the breakfast of munshis or clerks during the reign of the nizams in the 1600s. l A type of shakshuka: Another elaborate Hyderabadi breakfast is the khagina, which has much in common with the shakshuka: eggs scrambled or poached in an onion-and-tomato stew. Records of this dish date to the 13th century, when the poet and musician Amir Khusrau wrote about it. Its Turkic origins aren't surprising, given the region's historical ties with the Levant, via Arab traders. l Airy whipped milk: Varanasi's love for milk products is rooted in its long history of dairy farming. Malaiyo, rather poetically, is a breakfast treat said to be flavoured with winter dew. It is made by leaving boiled milk outdoors overnight, in shallow vessels, so dew can form on it. In the morning, the milk is whipped until it forms an airy cloud, then topped with powdered saffron and pistachio. Malaiyo was born of necessity. In a time when milk was plentiful but refrigeration did not yet exist, the cold winter air helped keep it from spoiling. Versions of the dish are made across north India. l A chivda of peas: Called chura matar, this is a winter dish of green peas and flattened rice. Flavoured with a complex mix of spices, as well as roasted melon seeds and powdered gooseberry, it makes for a delicious and nutritious sweet-sour-savoury snack. l Puris and stew: In the Musalman para or Muslim neighbourhoods, deep-fried dalpuris made with split Bengal gram are served with a fatty, spiced salan (or thick gravy of meat and offal). The dalpuri has roots in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. It arrived via indentured labourers, travelling onwards to island colonies via the Kolkata port. In Kolkata, it is typically used to mop up tamatar ishtu, a soupy mutton curry with a sprightly sourness from sundried tomatoes. l A pork khichdi: Jadoh, a dish of red rice cooked with pork and flavoured with spices, is sold early morning at kong shops run by Khasi women (kong is Khasi for sister). A popular accompaniment is a pork "salad" made with pig's brain, boiled or steamed in a banana leaf with onions and ginger. l Kettle cakes: An array of rice cakes are eaten across north-east India. At breakfast stalls in Shillong, one will often find soft-steamed versions called putharo that are perfect for sopping up a gravy of pork cooked in a black-sesame paste (or a protein-rich chutney made of fermented soybean paste). In Assam, bowl-shaped treats of rice, jaggery and scraped coconut are steamed in damp muslin by setting them in the open tops of tea kettles, where they get the name tekeli pitha. A variation in Mizoram is made by steaming a rice paste in a banana leaf and served with honey, and tea. l Crunchy snacks: Chickpeas grow plentifully in the arid swathes of Gujarat, which is why so much of the diet draws from batters made with this channa. For breakfast, this often takes the shape of fafda, thin strips of batter, fried and served with kadhi; khandvi, the soft, savoury steamed cakes that melt in the mouth; and fat curls of gathiya, made from a fried besan dough. l Pathi kulcha: Flavoured with saunf and baked in a wood-fired oven, these soft, airy kulchas are golden on one side and pale on the other. When still hot and steaming, they are tossed into simmering pots of chhole. This bheega or moist kulcha is then served topped with chhole, chopped onion (or white radish in winter) and a tangy tamarind chutney, in tiny shops in Amritsar's old city. l Barrel-shaped laddoos: In winter, breakfast is sometimes a barrel-like ladoo called pinni, made with black gram or wheat flour, stuffed with dry-fruit and nuts. This is quintessential farmer's food, meant to fortify the body for hours of hard work in the cold. l Masala rusks: This is the Capital's working-class breakfast-in-a-hurry. What makes Old Delhi's paape rusks unique is that the dough is leavened not with yeast but with khameer ka masala, a blend of about 20 herbs, spices and aromatics, including rose petals and saffron, with curd then mixed in and the whole left overnight to ferment. Fewer traditional vendors now make khameer ka masala. So this may actually be an endangered breakfast, in its current form. l Aloo-puri-halwa: Crusty bedmi puris with roots in rural Uttar Pradesh are made with a mix of wheat, lentils and spices. In Delhi, they are served with a thin tomato-potato gravy, alongside halwa-nagori, a dish in which crusty little shells of deep-fried dough are filled with sooji halwa, and sometimes topped with a bit of the spicy potato curry, for a burst of sweet-savoury flavour. l Bhakri-kanji: In a city of vada pav and constant change, the traditional breakfast of Mumbai's fisherfolk - bhakri or rice chapatis paired with a kanji or leftover fish curry - is still eaten in Koli homes. Fishermen leave too early for a fresh meal to be made, so leftover curry is reduced on low flame, to intensify the flavour. In Koli neighbourhoods, food stalls offer the staple too: bhakris and fish curry, often with a side of boiled eggs. In winter, methi ladoos are served too, for further fortification in the cold morning hours....