Perfected Foods from the Hinterlands
My work has always taken me to the hinterlands. One question that is almost always asked to me is how I manage with the food. With scarcely found good restaurants and compromised hygiene many of the times, it is really difficult to manage. It is especially painful when you like to savour your food as much as possible. Fortunately I have never been picky and choosy about taste of food and my acceptance of the unknown things has given me chance to taste some local gems. Here is a pick of five such foods that I have liked and have been perfected by the generations of locals from various hinterlands.
1. Manipuri Thali –At a town called Kakching in Manipur, we had visited a small eatery run by local women. The thali they served had diverse dishes. The locally grown bold sticky rice had its own pleasant taste. The dal, vegetables and chicken all had their unique blend of local herbs and vegetables. I remember use of really fragrant chives and local variety of mustard leaves. It also had iromba, a spicy chutney with local hot chillies, fermented bamboo shoots and fish. Iromba would be an acquired taste for non Manipuris however. There was minimal use of oil and all the dishes had the original flavours of the main ingredients.
2. Litti chokha –Biharis like to claim this dish for themselves. But it is found all across Gangetic plains and the best litti chokha I ever had is from Bhinga in Uttar Pradesh. The place I had visited did not even have a proper name and was placed next to a shack that claimed to be a Medical College. The people running this place seemed to have perfected their art of smoking and roasting littis, the wheat flour balls stuffed with sattu and the chokha was the right mixture of roasted brinjals, potatoes and finely chopped green chillies that could titillate your taste buds.
3. Meethu – It simply means salt in the tribal dialect of southern Gujarat. This is a mixture of extremely hot dried red chillies and crystal salt usually eaten with finger millet roti. They just mix these two ingredients in a large mortar and pestle and beat the hell out of them. If you try to prepare it with electric mixer you won’t get any taste since pounding does the magic of bringing all the real flavour ripe red chillies have. You only have to be able to handle all the fire to enjoy this one.
4. Kelewele – This is originally from the southern part of Ghana. The pieces of half ripe plantains are given a coating of ground fresh ginger, salt and then deep fried in palm oil. Some chilli powder is sprinkled on them afterwards. It is to be enjoyed piping hot. The sweetness of plantains meets the spicy flavours of ginger and chillies and presents a unique combination. I remember the ones which I used to get from a street side vendor near bus stand in Tamale, a midsized city in northern Ghana.
5. Khaproli- In my native village near Ratnagiri, one of my aunts used to prepare it. This is a thick spongy pancake. First rice, dals of black gram and chana and methi grains are soaked for few hours. Then these are coarsely ground and kept for fermentation for some more hours. Cold pressed coconut oil used to grease the skillet adds to the uniqueness of its taste. Earlier they used to prepare it on a flat surface of a mud tile called Khapar, hence the name Khaproli. These khapars had long gone even before we were borne and we had eaten the ones prepared on cast iron skillets.
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1. Manipuri Thali –At a town called Kakching in Manipur, we had visited a small eatery run by local women. The thali they served had diverse dishes. The locally grown bold sticky rice had its own pleasant taste. The dal, vegetables and chicken all had their unique blend of local herbs and vegetables. I remember use of really fragrant chives and local variety of mustard leaves. It also had iromba, a spicy chutney with local hot chillies, fermented bamboo shoots and fish. Iromba would be an acquired taste for non Manipuris however. There was minimal use of oil and all the dishes had the original flavours of the main ingredients.
2. Litti chokha –Biharis like to claim this dish for themselves. But it is found all across Gangetic plains and the best litti chokha I ever had is from Bhinga in Uttar Pradesh. The place I had visited did not even have a proper name and was placed next to a shack that claimed to be a Medical College. The people running this place seemed to have perfected their art of smoking and roasting littis, the wheat flour balls stuffed with sattu and the chokha was the right mixture of roasted brinjals, potatoes and finely chopped green chillies that could titillate your taste buds.
3. Meethu – It simply means salt in the tribal dialect of southern Gujarat. This is a mixture of extremely hot dried red chillies and crystal salt usually eaten with finger millet roti. They just mix these two ingredients in a large mortar and pestle and beat the hell out of them. If you try to prepare it with electric mixer you won’t get any taste since pounding does the magic of bringing all the real flavour ripe red chillies have. You only have to be able to handle all the fire to enjoy this one.
4. Kelewele – This is originally from the southern part of Ghana. The pieces of half ripe plantains are given a coating of ground fresh ginger, salt and then deep fried in palm oil. Some chilli powder is sprinkled on them afterwards. It is to be enjoyed piping hot. The sweetness of plantains meets the spicy flavours of ginger and chillies and presents a unique combination. I remember the ones which I used to get from a street side vendor near bus stand in Tamale, a midsized city in northern Ghana.
5. Khaproli- In my native village near Ratnagiri, one of my aunts used to prepare it. This is a thick spongy pancake. First rice, dals of black gram and chana and methi grains are soaked for few hours. Then these are coarsely ground and kept for fermentation for some more hours. Cold pressed coconut oil used to grease the skillet adds to the uniqueness of its taste. Earlier they used to prepare it on a flat surface of a mud tile called Khapar, hence the name Khaproli. These khapars had long gone even before we were borne and we had eaten the ones prepared on cast iron skillets.
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