STORIES FROM NORTHEAST INDIA: HOW FOOD BUILDS AND SUSTAINS COMMUNITIES

Food Journeys: Stories from the Heart. Edited by Dolly Kikon and Joel Rodrigues. Zubaan (2023). pp.344; ISBN: 9789390514427 (hardback)

“This book is about food stories and connections in the region, simultaneous and disruptive, public and personal. It is beaming with an energy that looks within, to the roots, while exploring and envisioning a collective future”.

-Kikon and Rodrigues (2023)

The introduction begins with the editors sharing their connection with food. Kikon recalls growing up in Naga society with a single mother, surrounded by a community of women who taught her cooking, kinship, and connections. “Cooking Naga food, as I realised early on, is seeking to develop a relationship between the social and ecological worlds”(pp.14). She remembers Aunty Senti, who taught her to make her first dish, ‘Alu Chutney’, which remains a comfort food for her. On first moving to Delhi, she shares that she carried stories alongside packets of smoked meat and herbs from home. Over the years, she continues to draw from the community spirit of sharing and surrounds herself with Naga herbs and food. Meanwhile, Rodrigues, being a Goan raised in Bombay, had no understanding of Northeast food until he went there to pursue his Master’s degree. The first time he ate ‘Galho’ cooked by his friend’s grandmother, he understood that“Food was a means to learn deeply about communities and from them” (pp.17). His mother did not let him cook, but the kitchen was a space where he could listen to her stories of survival, livelihood, and care. As he began to cook for himself, he feared sharing meals due to the domestic violence his mother endured from his father, who used her cooking as an excuse. Gradually, his friends from Kalimpong and Nagaland broke his inhibitions. He continues to lurk in the spacious, warm Northeast kitchens as he subconsciously seeks companionship with resilient women, much like his mother across kitchens.

The book has 19 essays and 3 photo stories by writers and photographers across the Northeast.The first essay is Writing My First Book on Northeast Food by Manipuri author Hoihnu Hauzel. She says it began with the food memories left behind by her paternal grandparents. She started as a journalist, gradually focusing on food writing. It was a daunting task for her to club all eight states of the Northeast, home to over 200 tribes and communities, fiercely unique. Yet, she had to tell the story of “What we eat, why we eat, and most importantly, how we eat” (pp.36). The Essential North-East Cookbook was published in 2004, followed by the second edition with the inclusion of Sikkim in 2014. In Civilising the Tastebuds, Techi Nimi remembers being ashamed of traditional Arunachalee cuisine. But after she left for boarding school, she hungered for the same food. Friendships were made and unmade over ‘Yamter’. Over time, on learning their stories, she began cultivating pride for tribal food and understood that her mother’s “Indigenous food practices reflected kinship, nurturing, care, and above all, love for oneself, nature, and others”(pp.53). 

Hamari Jamatia’s essay’s title ‘Does the artist eat gourd, brother?’ On Denouncing Pork and Discovering it, comes from a Tripuri children’s song and focuses on the politics of food. Many people of the Jamatia tribe, like her maternal family, stopped consuming pork and fowl under the influence of the Tripuri royal family and the Hindu religion. Meanwhile, her paternal family consumed and reared pigs.“The desirability of a particular food changes over time.Many factors like cultural acceptance, disposable income, availability, and economic viability determine food preferences”(pp.59). Till her teenage years, she stood in solidarity with her grandmother and mother by not consuming pork. Later, ‘Wahan Mosodeng’ became the secret to making friends. In Ganaeng Tamdui: A Community’s Story in a Grandmother’s Legacy, Juliana Phaomei says, “My grandmother’s story is an example of how systemic changes, when we are unprepared for them, continue to disrupt not only the social fabric but economic and health patterns of individuals and communities, adversely affecting women, children, and those with lesser financial capital. This is the story of Indigenous tribals not only in the Zeliangrong area, but across the world” (pp.72). For Juliana, learning the art of making ‘Ganaeng Tamdui’ from her mother was a way to continue her Apei’s legacy and preserve her community’s food. Umami Journeys by sisters Gertrude Lamare and Dalarympei Sabrina Kharmawphlang focuses on food as a homecoming. Both sisters recount their fascinating experiences with meat; Lamare’s was when she realised that UK’s blood sausages were much like Khasi ‘Doh Snam’. Meanwhile, for Dala, it was Italy’s osso buco alla Milanese, quite similar to her beloved ‘Doh Bung’. But meat was also something through which they faced personal and professional discrimination in Delhi. Dala, being a chef, hopes to deliver the taste of home to people in the cities.

In Mapping the Self Through a Legacy of Food, Yanbeni Yanthan shares her experience of growing up in a hybrid kitchen (Naga and War-Jaintia), remembering dishes like ‘Doh Khleh’ and ‘Machihan’.“Our food became a part of chronicling our personal relationships, and effectively, a demonstration of the gender and cultural dynamics of our home” (pp.102). Songs and Taste of a Smoked Kingdom by singer-songwriter Ronid ‘Akhu’ Chingangbam is a narrative of his food memories and the songs he wrote about his experiences and emotions regarding the Loktak lake, Laphu Eromba of Mao Gate, the Manipuri diaspora across Assam and Bangladesh, Ilisha fish, and local brews. Editor Joel Rogdrigues’s Classical Dishes, Taste, and Violence speak of how his experiences with Goan food in earlier years were tinged with violence. Gradually, cooking Goan dishes became a way to pay homage to his mother and recount food memories. He reiterates that culinary history has to be more inclusive and individualistic, “Therein, I believe, lies the pathway to celebration, solidarity, and healing” (pp.145). In Her Absence: Stolen Moments with Chicken, Babina Chabungbam remembers her grandmother and shares her experience of belonging to the Meitei Hindu community through food memories. She says that as a performer of Manipuri dance, her body is a carrier of problematic history, “But it also embodies the syncretic essence of the religious and cultural life of the people in its seamless movements. Multiple beginnings and ends converge with each bite of chicken I eat, and each move I dance” (pp.159).

Ningreichon Tungshang says The Heart That Fed a Multitude is an essay about her grandmother and mother. Sharing the recipe for Raphei Hoksa, a relished Naga dish, she says, “Food, they taught me, is a source of human connection and continuity. I aspire to have the heart that fed a multitude and to one day, pass on the baton, and the story, to my daughter” (pp.172). ‘In Food We Entrust Our Time’: Tastes of Multi-ethnic Haflong by Rini Barman begins with the Saturday bazaar day in Assam’s Haflong town, home to more than 12 ethnic groups and multiple cuisines. She reminds us that Indigenous communities share an ecological and community bond with the forest. Sharing that throughout the late 90s to the mid-2000s, the Dima Hasao area had witnessed multiple political and ethnic disturbances. She says, “The dreams of the youth are an encouraging sign” (pp.208). In Lo leh choka: Conversations on Mizo Food, Lalchhanhimi ‘Chhani’ Bungsut says this is the story of three generations of women- her grand-aunt, mother, and herself, intertwined by their shared food heritage. Sharing Hmar and Bru (Reang) recipes from her mother’s cookbook (Ei Tur Buatsaih Dan, 2007), she says,“Life comes full circle- my grand aunt’s memories of land, my mom’s dreams of returning, and my hope of holding on to what is left” (pp.221).

Janice Pariat, in Hills, Plains and the World: A Life in Meals and Morsels, begins her story with her grandmother and porridge, moving on to her life in a tea estate where her father worked. Remembering their cook Binod Baruah, bearer Madhu, and Stian Kharwar their nanny, she says that all meals eaten at the tea estate were held up by hierarchies of class, caste, and gender, “No meal, I realise, is ever really simple. No meal is conjured in a historical or political vacuum” (pp.246). She then shares her experiences of moving to Delhi and the UK. Eventually, she says she made her way back home to Shillong and shares that porridge seems “like a little bowl of hope” (pp.251). In Adivasi Food Trails in Assam, Sangeeta Tete speaks of the lives and food cultures of the Adivasi community (Oraon, Munda, Khadia, Gond, Saonra, Praja, etc.) working in Assam’s tea plantations. The workers are not paid enough to afford nutritious meals. She recounts her family struggling with food, her mother being a daily wage tea plantation worker, and her father a catechist. So, her parents leased land, and her mother passed on her wisdom of cultivation. She says, despite their struggles, “Increasingly, many Adivasi communities from the tea plantations are coming together to celebrate their food and cultures” (pp.264).

Neivikhotso Chaya’s My Journey with Rice Beer highlights how, in Nagaland, rice beer (Zutho/Thuthse) used to be a drink brewed by the poor and desperate. He recounts his memories of living in a mudu ghor/tina ghor where his mother sold rice beer. He says that gradually, the rice beer is being revered as a symbol of Naga culture, alongside the original makers should benefit and be remembered. Rice, Resilience and a Survival Story by Anjuman Ara Begum tells the story of Saleha Begum. In 1997, when river erosion consumed their village of Salmara in Assam, Saleha and her family made their way to Mahendraganj, where the rice-based dietary habits of the residents helped them create a livelihood. Here, the Hindus, Muslims, and Tribals have gradually learned to respect each other’s food choices. Saleha now resides alone, preparing and selling ‘Muri’. Him Kumar Ghimire’s Aamoi and Her Millet remembers his grandmother, who began farming by herself in the 1960s. Belonging to the Nepali community, millet was one of the crops she highly prioritised. Over time, he says certain policies have killed many traditional practices like millet farming. “For a community long fighting to assert cultural identity and subsequent political rights, the loss of Indigenous food practices leads to further loss of heritage and identity” (pp. 295). 

Loving Fermented Bamboo Shoot by Dolly Kikon follows three women from Old Ralan village in Nagaland. Bestfriends- Tsumungi, Pithunglo, and Yanchano, who forage and ferment tender bamboo shoots. Kikon wanted to link oral histories about sovereignty, survival, and resistance with Indigenous food cultures while recognising the forest as a vital connection. “Fermented food offers us an innovative lens to engage with pressing political and social concerns today” (pp. 323). In the final essay, Solace. Solitude. And Soliloquy of Food. RK Debbarma speaks of his travels and reminisces about his village which once was surrounded by forests in the south and rubber plantations in the north. Today, he says there is only destitution. He highlights how unsavoury politics uproots people’s lives and food traditions.“Forests, they tell stories: of food and hunger, of despair and death, of empowerment and dispossession” (pp.331).

This book also has multiple recipes and three significant photo essays- Tarun Bhartiya’s Tastes from an Unruly City: A Very Shillong Story in Photos (2016-21) with ‘Meghalaya & Greater Shillong Progressive Hawkers’ and Street Vendors’ Association ,highlight the stories of hawkers and street vendors protesting for their right to a livelihood. In The World of Cakes in Nagaland, we see how cakes have become an important part of Naga food culture through the story of baker Fuchumbeni Humtsoe and the lens of photographer Vevozo Vero. Lastly, Millet Brews for Creators and Communities by Kunga Tashi Lepcha and Praveen Chhetri showcases how across the hills of Darjeeling, Kalimpong, and Sikkim, the fermented millet drink ‘Chang’ is more than an exoticized drink. It is a part of everyday life, central to the socio-religious practices of the people. Food Journeys: Stories from the Heart is a book that truly reflects our Northeast region, the communities, diversity, and complexities. Here, all the stories come together like richly woven threads to create an intricate tapestry of food stories from the Northeast, both personal and communitarian.