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In the cuisine of Sikkim , in northeastern India, rice is a staple food, and fermented foods traditionally constitute a significant portion of the cuisine. [1] Nepalese cuisine is popular, as Sikkim is the only state of India with an ethnic Nepali majority. Many restaurants in Sikkim serve various types of Nepalese cuisine, such as the Limbu, Newa and Thakali cuisines. Tibetan cuisine has also influenced Sikkimese cuisine. The combination of various cuisines has resulted in one specific cuisine.
The geography and modes of food production within Sikkim inform the food culture within the state. [2] The economy of Sikkim is largely agrarian. [3] Due to the state's mountainous terrain, much of the land is unsuitable for farming, so terrace farming, particularly of rice, is common. In addition to rice, [4] other cereal crops cultivated in Sikkim include wheat, maize, barley, and millet. Potatoes, ginger, oranges, tea, and cardamom are also cultivated. [5] [6] Sikkim produces the most cardamom [7] of any Indian state, about 4200 tons annually. [8] Vegetables commonly grown include tomatoes, broccoli, and iskus. [9]
Although dairy and, to a lesser extent, meat and egg products are common elements of the Sikkimese diet, livestock primarily plays a subsidiary role in Sikkim's agricultural sector. Cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and yaks are raised. 11.7% of people in the rural areas of Sikkim are vegetarian. [10]
In 2016, Sikkim became India's first "organic state" after fully converting its agricultural land to sustainable farming practices. [11]
Fermented foods are an integral part of Sikkimese cuisine, comprising 12.6% of total food consumption in the state. Polling indicates that 67.7% of Sikkimese people prepare fermented foods at home rather than purchasing them. This suggests that most fermentation is done at the household level with the notable exceptions of chhurpi and marchaa (a starter culture for fermentation), which are purchased in markets. [10]
Various fermented alcoholic beverages are produced by the introduction of marchaa to cereal grain and subsequent saccharification and fermentation in an airtight vessel. Millet, rice, and maize are commonly used. The grain is washed, cooked, combined with marchaa, then saccharified in an earthware pot for about 1–2 days, then fermented for 2–8 days. [12] Examples of traditional fermented foods are kinema, gundruk, sinki, maseura, and khalpi. Traditional fermented beverages include chyang, tongba, raksi, and kodo ko jaanr.
Sikkimese meals typically follow a bhat-dal-tharkari-achar (Rice-Pulses-Curry-Pickle) pattern. [10]
Name | Description |
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Chhurpi | Traditional Himalayan cheese made from buttermilk. Two varieties of chhurpi exist, one being a soft variety that is usually eaten as a side dish, and a hard variety that is chewed. [13] |
Dal bhat | Boiled rice and pulses. It is often cooked with onion, garlic, ginger, chili, tomatoes, or tamarind and served with a vegetable tarkari. |
Dhindo | Nepalese meal prepared by gradual addition of flour to boiling water. |
Gundruk | Nepalese fermented leafy green vegetable. Surplus mustard, radish, and cauliflower leaves are gathered, shredded, then sealed in an earthenware pot and stored in a warm place. |
Kinema | Nepalese fermented soybean dish, traditionally combined in a soup with rice, but sometimes served as a side dish with rice or bread. |
Momo | Steamed dumpling popular throughout the Himalayas and the Indian subcontinent. This food is usually associated with Tibetan and Nepalese people. It is stuffed with minced meat or vegetable like chayote or cabbage in a roll of dough and then steamed. It is eaten with vegetable or meat soup and tomato achar. [14] |
Phagshapa | Nepalese dish of strips of pork fat stewed with radishes and dried chillies. [15] |
Sel roti | Nepalese rice bread which is ring shaped and sweet to taste. It is commonly prepared during the Dashain and Tihar festivals. |
Sinki | Nepalese fermented vegetable prepared by shredding radish roots and storing them for about a month in a sealed hole. |
Shabhaley | Tibetan bread stuffed with seasoned beef and cabbage. |
Thukpa | Tibetan noodle soup with vegetables or meat. [16] |
Palm wine, known by several local names, is an alcoholic beverage created from the sap of various species of palm trees such as the palmyra, date palms, and coconut palms. It is known by various names in different regions and is common in various parts of Africa, the Caribbean, South America, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Micronesia.
Fermented fish is a traditional preservation of fish. Before refrigeration, canning and other modern preservation techniques became available, fermenting was an important preservation method. Fish rapidly spoils, or goes rotten, unless some method is applied to stop the bacteria that produce the spoilage. Fermentation is a method which attacks the ability of microbials to spoil fish. It does this by making the fish muscle more acidic; bacteria usually cease multiplying when the pH drops below 4.5.
Tempoyak, asam durian or pekasam is a Malay condiment made from fermented durian. It is usually consumed by the ethnic Malays in Maritime Southeast Asia, notably in Indonesia and Malaysia. Tempoyak is made by crushing durian flesh and mixing it with some salt and kept in room temperature from three to seven days for fermentation. Tempoyaks are usually made during the durian season, when the abundance of durian and excess production are made into fermented tempoyak.
Assamese cuisine is the cuisine of the Indian state of Assam. It is a style of cooking that is a confluence of cooking habits of the hills that favour fermentation and drying as forms of preservation and those from the plains that provide extremely wide variety of fresh vegetables and greens, and an abundance of fish and meat. Both are centred on the main ingredient — rice. It is a mixture of different indigenous styles with considerable regional variations and some external influences. The traditional way of cooking and the cuisine of Assam is very similar to South-East Asian countries such as Thailand, Burma (Myanmar) and others. 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. Fish is widely used, and birds like duck, pigeon, squab, etc. are very popular, which are often paired with a main vegetable or ingredient; beef used to be eaten before British colonialism, and some continue to do so. Preparations are rarely elaborate. The practice of bhuna, the gentle frying of spices before the addition of the main ingredients so common in Indian cooking, is absent in the cuisine of Assam. The preferred oil for cooking is the pungent mustard oil.
Red rice is rice that is colored red due to natural anthocyanin content. It is usually eaten unpolished or partially polished, and has a red bran layer, rather than the more common pale brown. Red rice has a nutty flavor. It has the highest nutritional value among rices eaten with the bran intact.
Mishti doi is a fermented sweet doi (yogurt) originating from the Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent and common in the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura, Assam's Barak Valley, and in the nation of Bangladesh. It is made with milk and sugar or jaggery. It differs from the plain yogurt because of the technique of preparation. There are many variations of mishti doi according to their popularity. Sweet curd of Nabadwip, Kolkata, Bogra, etc are very popular.
Raksi (Devanagari:रक्सी) or Rakshi is the Nepali term for a traditional distilled alcoholic beverage in Nepal, India and Tibet. It is often made at home.
A fermentation starter is a preparation to assist the beginning of the fermentation process in preparation of various foods and alcoholic drinks. Food groups where they are used include breads, especially sourdough bread, and cheese. A starter culture is a microbiological culture which actually performs fermentation. These starters usually consist of a cultivation medium, such as grains, seeds, or nutrient liquids that have been well colonized by the microorganisms used for the fermentation.
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Kinema is a fermented soybean food, prepared by the Limbu communities of the Eastern Himalayas region: Eastern Nepal, and Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Sikkim regions of India. Kinema also known as Kinama, which is a traditional food of the Limbu people.
Chakuli pitha is a flat Odia rice-based fermented cake traditionally popular in the regions of Odisha state in India. It is prepared and served during festivals.
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Nuruk (Korean: 누룩) is a traditional Korean fermentation starter. It is used to make various types of Korean alcoholic beverages including takju, cheongju, and soju. It is an essential ingredient in Shindari and is mixed with rice. Historically, it was used in a variety of provinces of Korea, including Jeju Island.
Jyoti Prakash Tamang is an Indian food microbiologist, working on fermented foods and alcoholic beverages of the Himalayan regions of India, Nepal and Bhutan and South East Asia for last 36 years and the Senior Professor in Microbiology of the Sikkim Central University. Known for his studies on fermented food, Prof. Tamang is an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy (FNA), National Academy of Science, India (NASI),National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Indian Academy of Microbiological Sciences and the Biotech Research Society of India. The Department of Biotechnology of the Government of India awarded him the National Bioscience Award for Career Development, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to biosciences in 2004, and International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD)-Mountain Chair (2019-2022). Prof. Tamang was nominated as Global Kimchi Ambassador by World Institute of Kimchi of Government of South Korea.
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