BharatSangraha

Tripura Hills & Plains · Northeast Hill Massif

Foodways

Two kitchens in one territory, and one ingredient that crosses between them. The hill kitchen — mui borok, the Kokborok-speaking communities' own cooking — uses no cooking oil at all. Food is boiled, steamed in a leaf parcel, or packed into a green bamboo internode and set over embers; the seasoning comes from berma, the fermented sun-dried fish that is added to almost everything, plus fresh chilli, garlic and coriander. The plains kitchen is a delta kitchen: mustard oil, panch phoron, freshwater fish in a light gravy, and a sweet course that the hill kitchen does not have. What they share is fermented and dried fish — berma in the hills, shutki on the plain — which means the two systems disagree about oil and agree about umami.

Primary cooking medium

No cooking medium at all in the hill kitchen; fat arrives only as pork, and only inside the potMustard oil on the western plain, used raw as well as for fryingRendered pork fat in the hill communities' meat dishesGhee in temple and festival cooking on the plain

Dominant sour agents

Fermented bamboo shootTomato, pounded raw into mosdengLime and wild citrusTamarind and green mango on the plainStarfruit and elephant apple in the plains kitchen

Spice register

Two profiles that meet in the market and not in the pot. The hill kitchen runs on chilli, garlic, ginger and coriander leaf with berma supplying depth, and no ground spice mix whatever. The plains kitchen runs on panch phoron, turmeric, mustard paste and a delta sweetness in the savoury food. Placed against neighbours: the Mizo hills use fermented pork fat where these hills use fermented fish, the Imphal valley uses ngari for the same job as berma, and the Brahmaputra valley adds khar, which is absent here.

Staple grains and carbs

Rice, both wet-terraced on the valley floors and jhum-grown on the slopesSticky rice for cakes, pitha and beerMaize and millet as jhum reserve cropsRice flour, used as a thickener in the hill kitchen where no flour-and-fat roux exists

Preservation methods

Berma — small freshwater fish sun-dried and then fermented into cakes, the defining preserved food of the hillsShutki — sun-dried fish of the plains kitchen, drier and less fermented than bermaBamboo shoot fermented in water in covered jars, bottled and sold year-roundSmoke-drying of pork and fish above the hearthChuak and chuwarak — rice beer and its distilled form, which also preserve a grain surplusSun-dried chillies, and pineapple and jackfruit dried or distilled at the end of the season

Signature techniques

Bamboo-tube cooking

A green bamboo internode is cut, packed with meat or vegetables and a splash of water, plugged with leaf and leaned over embers. The culm chars outside while its own moisture steams the contents. It needs no pot, no oil and no washing up, and it is the technique that gudok and its relatives are built on. In a state where bamboo is the leading forest crop, the vessel is free and disposable.

Also found in: Mizo–Kuki–Chin Hills, Naga Hills, Brahmaputra Valley, Garo Hills

Berma fermentation

Small freshwater fish — puti and similar — are sun-dried, then packed and left to ferment until they can be pressed into cakes and stored. A pinch dissolved into a boiling pot supplies salt, savour and smell all at once. It is what makes a Tripuri dish taste Tripuri, and it is the ingredient most often used to explain the cuisine to outsiders and least often enjoyed by them at first meeting.

Also found in: Brahmaputra Valley, Imphal Valley, Barak Valley

Leaf-parcel steaming

Rice, seasonal vegetables and berma are wrapped in a banana or lairu leaf and steamed, so the parcel cooks as a sealed unit and is opened at the meal. Awan bangwi is the standing example. It is the same logic as the bamboo tube applied to a smaller portion.

Also found in: Garo Hills, Brahmaputra Valley

Pounded raw chutney (mosdeng)

Chilli, garlic, onion, coriander and a seasonal vegetable are crushed uncooked in a wooden mortar, usually with a little berma, and served alongside. Mosdeng serma, the tomato version, is the commonest. It carries the heat of the meal so the boiled dishes do not have to.

Also found in: Mizo–Kuki–Chin Hills, Naga Hills, Imphal Valley

Rice-flour thickening

With no fat and no flour-based roux, body in a hill dish comes from rice flour or from pounded rice stirred into the pot — the technique behind muya awandru. It is the only thickener in the traditional repertoire, which is why the food is soupy rather than saucy.

Also found in: Mizo–Kuki–Chin Hills

Chuwarak distillation

Fermented rice beer is redistilled over a fire through a simple bamboo-and-pot still into chuwarak. The mash is not always rice — pineapple and jackfruit versions are made when the fruit is in glut, which turns an unsaleable surplus into something that keeps.

Also found in: Mizo–Kuki–Chin Hills, Naga Hills

The foodway signature of Tripura Hills & Plains — cooking medium, souring agents, spice register, staple grains and the techniques that define it. (6)