FOR THE GOOD, the traditional ethnic food of Northeast India has, of late, witnessed a boom as far as its availability is concerned. The ethnic delicacies of this region, with all its nutritional and culinary values, have started asserting itself as a better food choice, despite the overrunning impact of globalization. This perhaps has two reasons — it acts as one of the facets of the cultural identity of a community, and secondly, which is more fulfilling, it is really good and healthy.

With numerous indigenous people inhabiting this culturally-rich region, the Northeast cuisine varies from community to community with distinct food habits, along with certain common features — mostly non-vegetarian and non-spicy but hot.

In the Brahmaputra valley, a distinctive cuisine has been established as the Assamese cuisine with rice, khar (alkali), tenga (sour), masor jol (fish stew), pitika (mashed side dishes), khorika (char-grilled meat and fish), etc. In Manipur, it is rice, kangsoi (boiled vegetables), various athongba (curries), eromba which is a kind of mashed chutney with highly popular ingredients of ngari (dry fish), utonga (fermented fish), hawaijar (fermented soybean), soibum (bamboo shoot), etc. The Naga cuisine, consisting of pork, bamboo shoot, fermented soybean, dried meat and vegetables and lots of chilli pepper, has earned popularity throughout the country for its exotic value. Other communities of Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Tripura too have their own delectable food items.

What has made Northeast cuisine so attractive is the fact that it is complete food, organic by default, nutritious, fibrous, less spicy and less oily, and therefore, ideal healthy food.

All these are behind the effort by a few young entrepreneurs to open up a stylish restaurant, Maihang, in the heart of the city of Guwahati (Shanti House, GS Road). The restaurant, which was running on a trial basis since the time of Durga Puja this year, was formally opened last week with an exotic, all-encompassing menu. The effort is to serve all the traditional, ethnic dishes of this region together with our own Assamese delicacies. The menu has introduced, perhaps for the first time in the Guwahati, the sticky black rice from Manipur and the red rice from both the Brahmaputra valley as well as from the hills like Meghalaya.

One distinctive feature of Maihang (which is an Assamese word for a special plate/dish with feet made of bell metal used by the nobles of the great Ahom community), will be the use of non-commercial, indigenous ethno-botanical plant vegetables, purely organic in growth. Kalyan Barua, manager of the restaurant, said that for this, Maihang is sourcing these valuable plants like mejenga or onger (Sichuan pepper or Zanthoxylum), mesaki (Pouzolzia), tajik (Glochidion), kosu (yam), dhekia (a kind of fern), khutura (Amaranth), manimuni (Asiatic Pennywort), etc from the garden being developed at Kshetri.

Swarup Chetia of Maihang Food and Beverage informed that instead of commercial vegetables, Maihang will serve vegetables which are indigenous to the Northeast like squash, papaya, pumpkin, ash gourd, bottle gourd, banana stem, banana flower, yam root, etc.

Another feature of the servings is the milk-based sweet dishes or desserts which are mostly made of pumpkin, ash gourd, tapioca root, ground lentil, sweet potato, pineapple, etc. Along with these, various delectable dishes like hidol (fermented fish), namsing (fish smoke dried and fermented), akhoni (fermented soybean), anishi (dried and fermented Yam leaves), etc shall be served as exotic delicacies of the Northeast.

Maihang’s effort in preserving and popularizing ethnic food of the Northeastern region will surely attract people’s appreciation.

Partha Pratim Hazarika