Neo-ethnic food - A fast growing trend
The Northeast Indian palate is host to a set of tastes that refl ects a blend of different ethnic groups. And the reason behind this seems to be geographical. While it’s very much a part of the Indian kitchen that boasts of its spices and curry, Northeast Indian food also shares similar cuisine preferences with neighbouring Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand and China as well. So while you have a fusion of mainland Indian and Southeast Asian food in one, you have completely pristine organic food in another.
Northeast Indian food is a revelation of sorts. Its simplicity itself carries its underlying ethnic quality. Rice is the staple food here, complemented by other add-ons, primarily meat and lots of vegetables. Herbs have a favourite place in the Northeast plate. You can make a curry, chutney, a fried dish or anything else for that matter, but an iota of green adorns the food plate, no matter what. Mostly cooked in mustard or sesame oil, the food is never overcooked or overspiced so as to retain its original fl avour. Meat and fish are either stewed with herbs, and vegetables are dried, smoked or baked. Use of spices is restricted to chilli, ginger, garlic, turmeric and coriander and a variety of flavouring herbs.
Khar is often a side dish that more often than not neutralises the acidity of food and is equally relishable. It stands in some matters contradictory to curd. Potatoes are always adored when it comes to tasty food and in Northeast Indian dishes, they come mashed. Add some mashed potatoes or brinjals with mustard oil, salt and chilli, and you wouldn’t even realise when you have licked your plate clean.
The best thing about Northeast Indian food is that it is very sumptuous while not being too rich or greasy. Consider an ethnic Assamese thali – a dishful of rice, pitika (mashed potatoes or brinjal or any such thing), matimah or black dal, some wild herbs boiled or fried, khar, some dried meat, a smoked fi sh, and a bowl full of masor jool (fish curry). Hungry?
One more benefit of this kind of food is its therapeutic quality. If you know how to mix the right amount of this herb with that, or how to prepare the special medicinal curry, you have the key to various analgesic, antipyretic, antibiotic and even aphrodisiac actions of food.
Besides, Northeast ethnic food is organic by default. And why not, with all those herbs and vegetables that grow in the lap of pure natural abundance! The culinary practice of not using commercially produced spices and taste-makers makes the food safer and healthier. Besides, the Northeastern palate savours meat or fish that’s fresh and locally available. With such endemic preferences, cuisines out here are exquisite as they are exotic.
But while there are so many positive aspects of it, there are also problems of serving ethnic Northeastern food in mainland areas or the metropolis. But with the world developing at light year speed, there are newer avenues that provide welcome substitutes to organic ethnic food of the Northeast. The hotel industry, with its cosmopolitan outlook towards taking in innovative changes has recently considered indulging in cooking neo-ethnic food. While the food ingredients remain the same, the ways of cooking have changed. So while your grandma cooked your favourite aloo-pitika (mashed potatoes) and khorikaat diya maas (barbecued fish) in the village hearth, the latest gas burner or microwave heated taste gives you an almost similar delight.
And with its popularity increasing with each passing day among adventure foodies of today, restaurants and hotels serving ethnic Northeast Indian food have also come up spectacularly.
There’s another face to this, of course. There are not many certifi ed cooks, and the commercial cooking equipments and gadgets are not wholly suitable for our ethnic food. Besides, considering the rising demand for the neo-ethnic food of Northeast India, it is time we develop modern kitchen equipments suitable for preparing our food. Because, whether we live to eat or eat to live, eat we must; and eat healthy for that matter.
The new mantra of food lovers is ‘healthy eating, healthy living’; even if it means sacrifi cing a few extra bucks. And ethnic Northeastern food has all the ingredients to make a wholesome, delicious and healthy diet that can serve well both for the tummy as well as the health-conscious mind. So all of you who haven’t yet had the chance to taste it, look Northeast!
Related Articles
