Ghugni & Dusaka~Indian State Bihar

Ghugni & Dusaka ~Bihari Cuisine

Today on day 4 we are at Bihar ...
Bihar is a north Indian state. The Bihar plain is divided into two parts by the river Ganges which flows through the middle from west to east.

According to Wikipedia

The name Bihar is derived from the Sanskrit and Pali word, Vihara (Devanagari: विहार), which means "abode". It could also mean College as there was a town close to Bodh Gaya called Bihar Sharif which was destroyed in the medieval period.

In A typical Hindu Brahmin household you will hear conch shell being blown at dawn. Not surprising that in rural Bihar, religion is the main component of popular culture. Shrines are located everywhere foot of trees, roadsides, and the dashboard of a dilapidated taxi to the plush office of a top executive, holy symbols or idols have their place.

There are many variations on the festivals too.  While some are celebrated all over the state, others are observed only in certain areas. As Bihar is diverse so festivals take place round the year. Many of these are officially recognised so are proclaimed as government holidays.

But what is Bihari cuisine like?

Again according to Wikipedia,” Bihari cuisine is eaten mainly in Bihar, Jharkhand, Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bangladesh, Nepal, Mauritius, Fiji, and some cities of Pakistan, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago as these are they places where Bihari people are present.

Bihari cuisine is predominantly vegetarian because traditional Bihar society influenced by  Buddhist  and  Hindu values of non-violence did not eat eggs, chicken, fish and other animal products. However there is also a tradition of meat-eating and fish dishes.

Dairy products are consumed frequently throughout the year, with common foods including yogurt known as dahi and also buttermilk known as  mattha,  ghee,  lassi  and butter. The cuisine of Bihar is similar to a great extent to North Indian cuisine but has an influence from other East Indian Cuisine (for example like Bengali cuisine). It is highly seasonal, with watery foods such as watermelon and Sherbet made of pulp of the wood-apple fruit being consumed mainly in the summer months and dry foods, preparations made of sesame seeds, poppy seeds in the winter months.

Some dishes which Bihar is famous for, include Sattu Paratha, which are  parathas  stuffed with fried chickpea flour, Chokha (spicy mashed potatoes),  Fish  curry  and  Bihari Kebab, Postaa-dana kaa halwaa. As the seasons change so does the Bihari thaali, every 3–4 months. The constants are  rice,  roti,  achar,  chatni, dals and milk products with some variation.

People use both vegetable oil or mustard oil and jeera or panch foran (literally "five seeds", namely saunf or fennel, rai or mustard, methi or fenugreek, ajwain or caraway seeds  and mangraeel (Kalaunji) or onion seeds  for "chhounkna"/"Tadka"(tempering) of some vegetables. There is a lot of light frying, called  bhoonjnaa, in Bihari food.

One of the most remarkable things about this cuisine is "smoked food". It refers to using smoked red chilli to infuse a strong aroma in food. It is used in preparing "chokhaa", i.e. mashed brinjals/potatoes/tomatoes, either single or combined. Smoked chilli is also used in preparing kadam (a common fruit sweet sour in taste, technical name Anthocephalus morindaefolia) chutney.”

So why did I choose Ghugni & Dusaka? It so happened that

Labra~ Indian State Assam

Labra  Assamese Cuisine

Today on day 3 of  the Blogging Marathon let’s stop at Assam!

Think Assam and think Assam tea!! The delicious brew that wakes me up and gets me going!  

So is Assam all about tea only?

 No Assam (Asom, Axom) is a state of India in the north-eastern region. Its capital is Dispur, located within the municipal area of Guwahati city. Located south of the eastern Himalayas, Assam comprises the Brahmaputra and the Barak river valleys along with the Karbi Anglong and the North Cachar Hills. Assam is surrounded by six of the other Seven Sister States. Geographically Assam and these states are connected to the rest of India via a narrow strip of land in West Bengal called the Siliguri Corridor or "Chicken's Neck".

Assam is rich in culture, ethnic groups, languages/dialects spoken and literature. It is known for Assam tea, large and old petroleum resources (the first oil reserves of India were discovered in Assam in the late 19th century), Assam silk and for its rich biodiversity. Assam has successfully conserved the one-horned Indian rhinoceros from near extinction, along with the tiger and numerous species of birds, and it provides one of the last wild habitats for the Asian elephant. It is becoming an increasingly popular destination for wildlife tourism, and Kaziranga and Manas are both World Heritage Sites. Assam was also known for its Sal tree forests and forest products, much depleted now. A land of high rainfall, Assam is endowed with lush greenery and the mighty river Brahmaputra, whose tributaries and oxbow lakes provide the region with a unique hydro-geomorphic and aesthetic environment.

Me I am interested in the cuisine of Assam as Assamese cuisine is still obscure.

"Assamese style of cooking that is a confluence of cooking habits of the hills that favour  fermentation  and  drying  as  forms of food preservation and those from the plains that provide fresh vegetables and abundance of fish from its many rivers and ponds;  the staple food here is rice.

Assamese cooking is a mixture of different indigenous styles with considerable regional variations and some external influences. The cuisine is characterized by very little use of spices, little cooking over fire and strong flavours due mainly to the use of endemic exotic fruits and vegetables that are either fresh, dried or fermented.

Typically, an Assamese plate would contain bhaat (rice) with dal (lentils), masor jool (fish curry), with mangso (meat curry) or xaak and bhaji (herbs and vegetables).

Rice is one of the main dishes in Assam, and variety of different rice are grown and eaten in different ways, roasted, grounded, boiled or just soaked. Fish curries made of rou, illish, or chitol are the most favourite. If not a curry, simply fried fish. Birds like ducks and pigeon are also used in dishes. Pork and Mutton dishes are mainly popular among the younger generation.

Another favourite combination can be looci (puffed bread), a curry which can be vegetarian or non-vegetarian, and asar (pickle).

Two main characteristic of a traditional meal in Assam are Khar and Tenga. A class of dishes named after the main ingredient Khar and a sour dish is aTenga.

Khorisa (bamboo shoot) are used at times for flavours in curries. They also can be preserved and made into pickles. Koldil (Banana Flower) and Squash are also cooked into delicious sabji's.

The food is usually served in bell metal utensils.

Courtesy: Wikipedia

Khapse/Khap Tse ~Indian State Arunachal Pradesh

Khap-Tse/ Khapse Arunachal Pradesh

On day 2, let’s visit Arunachal Pradesh!   The place where the first rays of the sun falls. Arunachal Pradesh ‘Arun’ meaning sun Pradesh means country. Also known as the’ Land of Dawn Lit Mountains’, it’s also known as ‘Land Of The Rising Sun’. Apart from these there are names like ‘Orchid State of India’ and the ‘Paradise of the Botanists’.

For those of you who have missed what the Blogging Marathon is about then yesterday we visited Andhra Pardesh!

 We are blogging about 1 state everyday this month.  Today as we visit Arunachal Pradesh. I will like to share with you today my Father-in –Law’s experiences at Arunachal Pradesh, which he many times refers to as NEFA. He was posted there in 1962 most of us may not remember this war as it was long before our time. But China had attacked India and we fared badly. This is one of him many experiences penned by him much later

Unforgettable day in NEFA

Arunachal Pradesh of today was known as North East Frontier Agency (NEFA) during the British rule. This area is inhabited by the locals called Mishmis there are further division of their tribes. The area is continuous with Tibet in the north, India towards west and south and Burma on the east. It is therefore, but natural that people from India, Tibet and Burma also throng into NEFA, especially after the Chinese invasion of 1962.

The concept of a village is quite different from that in other areas. It denotes a cluster of a few huts either on top of a hill, on the slope of the mighty Himalayan ranges or in the valley near the turbulent tributaries of the mighty Brahmaputra.

Some of the peculiarities of the area are – cut off from the rest of the country, you have to walk for three to four days, absence of city luxuries, rich in Flora and Fauna, almost all kinds of birds as in the birds sanctuary, fast flowing cool waters of the rivers, simple living in thatched huts, biting cold in the snow season, cooperative living among Armed Personnel, Civilians and locals and among all the highest morale of the people in the danger of another Chinese onslaught as in October 1962.

Can a person ever forget his stay in such a locality and that too performing his job in the service of the Nation? There are so many experiences in my stay in these parts of our country. But a   few of them are enshrined deep in our hearts. Once such incident is narrated below---

We were posted to the forward area close to the Chinese border. The signs of the October ’62 invasion and subsequent Chinese threats were still fresh in the minds of the people. The belief was that the Chinese were still in an advantageous position to invade, occupy and run over the place anytime they decided. (Now of course we have improved our side and would allow China or any other enemy to easily run over us and defeat us as in ’62).

It was our job as part of the Intelligence Bureau to collect intelligence and alert the Armed Forces in the forward areas in case of an attack. Not an easy task as the army was 60 kms. away and not connected by roads.

It was against this background one winter evening when we were engaged in playing cards, when we heard the sound of a bomb exploding! Very near us!!

Since it was dark all over (sunset is early being Far East) as per the instructions all the men went to their predetermined hideouts and were lying in “stand too positions”. Discussions about the explosions in hushed voices indicated that the reason could

a) Bombing by the Chinese indicating a sudden attack,

 b) Mischief by the enemy agents to frighten the people or

c) Accidental setting off of a bomb.

We, l the officers of the Armed Forces like Assam Rifles, ITBP and us (The Intelligence bureau) held a hurried conference  to detect the source of the explosion and the place and people from the invading enemy if that was the cause. This had to be done quickly so as to assure our protective cover to the locals who were quite afraid of the Chinese mighty onslaught. Whereas the majority of our Armed Forces took position to effectively face the possible attack, some of us officers decided to crawl up to different positions away from our hideouts for a recee to pinpoint the source and cause of the explosion.

One of my junior officer and I crawled up the hill MSP camp location. There were no lights as during “stand to” all lights are switched off. Much to our astonishment we heard some of the MSP jawans crying. We saw a small crowd that had gathered around 3 bodies who were killed in the blast.

After we ascertained that the source of the explosion was in the MSP camp and not due to the enemy, the “stand to” positions were called off!!

 All the men heaved a sigh of relief to find that the enemy was not involved!!

Yet, our job was not over  as we had to find out the cause of the incident, it came to light that 2 jawans went out to the dropping zone in that evening  and found a curious object. They brought it to their barracks. Thinking it will serve well as a paper weight they tried to tinker with it with a knife and there was a big explosion killing both of them on the spot and piercing the neck of the 3^rd jawan who was quietly sleeping in his cot.  Apart from the loss of 3 lives a large portion of the barrack was damaged.

We found a piece of HEAT shell near the explosion site, that coupled with knowledge of the people who saw the curious object  we established that the object that was found was Heavy Explosive Anti Tank( HEAT) shell of the Indian Army had exploded. The shell is powerful enough to knock down a Tank and could have easily killed more people.

While paying tributes to the 3 men we thanked the Almighty for sparing our lives in that fateful day.

As penned by Shri. S.V. Potdar.
 Retd. Official from IB

Hydrababi Dum Biryani ~Indian State Andhra Pradesh

Vegetable Dum Biryani ~Andhra Pradesh

So this is the first in the series of Blogging Indian States where we are blogging non-stop on Indian States.

So let us begin with the first state Andhra Pradesh!

It has been in the news these days with the partitioning of the state and both the opposers and supporters making headlines.

My father was posted to set up the Zonal Office there in Hyderabad and this was in the year 1988, the year I got married! I visited the places around but could not move around much as it was the time when the Babri masjid was broken and there were riots. Hubby, I and my sister were unaware about the riots, we were visiting Golconda Fort! Wow it was an adventure when we finally managed to reach home!

Food in Andhra Pradesh is amazing …. It’s called Telugu cuisine after the language spoken in Andhra Pradesh!