[Assam] NE cuisines making waves across world (The Assam Tribune, 20.12.2007)

[Buljit Buragohain]

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  NE cuisines making waves across world
 NEW DELHI, Dec 19 – Tenga, Pitika, Thupka and Rumba along with a host of other delicacies from the North East are now making waves across the world, reports PTI. Though a piece of the pan-Indian cuisine, food from the North East is recently making its presence gradually felt both in the country as well as in the global market. 

“The not-so-much-talked-about North eastern food with its pristine flavours and pure taste of nature is slowly making inroads to global palates,” Bakshish Dean, executive chef at a five star hotel in the capital told PTI. The eight North eastern states has a very rich culinary heritage, says Dean who in joint collaboration with Institute for Environmental Management and Social Development (IEMSD), had organised a eight-day northeast food fest here recently. 

To look at the diversity of NE cuisine is sometimes an unfathomable proposition. The cooking styles and flavours of each and every state in the region is unique and differs from each other with considerable influence of Bengali, Nepali, Thai, Bhutan, Tibetan, Myanmar and Chinese cuisine, he says. 

According to foodie, traveler, social scientist and filmmaker Dr Ashish Chopra, Assamese and Tripurian cuisine have adopted various nuances from Bangladesh. “The Bengali influence is strong and the ingredients and recipes are more or less similar. The only difference is that Assamese cuisine is much less spicy and less oily. The staples are rice and fish.” 

“Bamboo is used extensively in cuisine of Tripura,” says Dr Chopra who has also authored a book called ‘NE Belly’.
            
























  (The Assam Tribune,20.12.2007)


       
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