LLDC 2019 – Part 2: The Manipuri Kitchen

They say food can transport you to a whole other place... Well, it's true. While I was in Kutch, I made a quick dash to Manipur – through my plate of course!

The Manipuri kitchen team of three had traveled from Imphal to Ajrakhpur to cook up a series of Manipuri meals for the Namaste festival.

The team was headed by Mr. Sanat Kumar Sharma, an enthusiastic gentleman in traditional attire, who was happy to give me a quick guide of everything they had been cooking for the last 3 hours.

Mr. Sanat Kumar Sharma

I found in their kitchen some really interesting Manipuri ingredients that they had brought along to use.

The first item that caught my eye were these incredible purple tiger-striped beans! (Made a mental note to add yet another ingredient to my list of naturally purple foods.) One of the chefs, Suniti, told me they are called Kalantri beans. I haven’t been able to find any more information on these yet… can anyone help me here?

Kalantri beans

Another ingredient that caught my attention was what is known in Manipur as koukha. Koukha, or Sagittarie sagittifolia, are the small tubers of a plant that grows in the muddy beds of shallow ponds. These were stir fried to make the dish koukha kang-hou.

Koukha

Then I spent a few minutes watched Suniti deftly chopped away at a lotus stem to make Singju, after which, I proceeded out to the dining area in anticipation of the meal.

Suniti prepping Singju

Plating up for display

I encountered so many new flavours that my palate took to almost instantly! I just wish the dishes, when laid out on the buffet counter, had some labels or tags, so I could have made proper notes of all the dishes on my plate. I tried my best to match the items on my plate with those listed on the menu.

Manipuri thali (this beautifully arranged one was for only display, though)

Two of my favourite items from the meal were the Singju and the Chaak Hao Kher.

Singju was a salad-like side dish of lotus stem, long beans, and herbs. It was fresh, crunchy, and unlike anything I had tasted before.

Chaak hao kher was the kheer made of purple chaak hao rice.

I had tasted another sweet made from black rice before – a halwa made from the kavani arisi variety of black rice, in Chettinad, on another food trip back in 2015 (read about it here). The halwa was rich, sticky, chewy and nutty, and chomping on it was quite an experience. This chaak hao kheer instantly reminded me of that. I greedily went back for seconds (and thirds… and then fourths)!!

Later, after the cooking was done and dinner service had begun, Mr. Sanat Kumar came out of the kitchen and stood near the buffet to serve diners and also watch over the service. I almost didn’t recognize him now, because he had changed out of his traditional attire in which we had been cooking, into trousers, shirt and sweater vest. His grinning face was the only way I could tell it was indeed him.

He told me that cooking was originally his hobby, which he had turned into his profession in 1975 when he started his catering business. After dropping this nugget, he silently shuffled off to serve other diners, leaving me to enjoy the meal.