Assamese Food (& Fish)
- Shanzé Shah
- Sep 15, 2017
- 3 min read
I visited India last year for around 7 weeks. I can talk months about my experience but that would be a very dull read. My first 4 weeks were spent working at a Child Rights NGO in Guwahati, Assam.
This is an area of India less known to foreigners and its actually quite different from mainland India because it borders with Bangladesh, Myanmar and Bhutan.
I LOVE FISH & anything from the sea( the river Brahmaputra was the source of my 'seafood' there ). So I could not be happier to be in a state that eats so much of it. During my time there I was able to experience fish in a lot of flavours I never had before
Tiffin for lunch
Below is an example of what I would get in my daily “tiffin” at work. Tiffin’s are delivered to work places in India for lunch, they are home cooked meals and contain a variety of dishes. You get the option to chose veg and non veg. I normally went with non-veg.
My typical tiffin would have a vegetable such as okra, a fish curry cooked in a medium sauce, a potato curry, lentils and rice! All of them very mild flavours but very delicious. It was interesting to one day have a plethora of tiny fish to another day having a bony fillet.
Imagine having home cooked food delivered to your work everyday!! Much better than those awful awful meal deals
My Big Banquet
Before I left Assam I was invited for a traditional Assamese meal by one of my closest friends I made there. And it was no little dinner party.
The food included:
Kachumber salad
Local Joha rice(found exclusively in Assam)
Two types of Fish Curries
Fish Tenga: which is the traditional tangy fish curry, very popular there ( the light coloured one) FAVOURITE
Fish in a Mustard Sauce (Xorioh sorsori) – This has a very rich mustard flavour and I guess everyone may not like it as its very strong, but I loved it. (The thick yellow one)
Egg Curry (Also very common & it tasted amazing!!)
Traditional Assamese Potatoes (Those are the tiny little round brown things, so tiny, so delicious)
Chicken curry & Chicken Roast
Desert was Kheer (type of rice pudding) made of local purple rice(found only in Northeast India).
Then there were at least 7 different types of chutneys, some I had before as they were similar to Pakistani like the mint & corriander ones but others completely new such as: Kabuli chana (Ground lentil chutney), Sesame seed chutney & Ombol, a tomato chutney which I adored.
Me with the star chef of that night xxxx
Honestly I miss that meal until today. I use this dinner as an example because it had mostly all the flavours I had in Assam over the month, it summarised Assam for me.
Later in the week I was also taken to a traditional Assamese restaurant and the dishes were reciprocated!
Honestly the way fish is cooked and treasured in Assam is very unique. They do not use spice a lot but mustard, tamarind and similar flavours are used a lot.
(As always here’s an unrelated extra*)
MOMOS!!!
I couldn’t not mention them. Momo’s are small dumplings either steamed or fried, they are stuffed either with a delicious meat stuffing of all kinds or vegetables.
They are available on EVERY street corner, topped with a sauce and one of the best things I’ve ever had.
I was even able to go to a Momo festival while there! & tried some tandoori momo's so momo's cooked in a Tandoori Clay Oven!!
The food there deserves soo much more recognition because its such a unique part of India and a beautiful amalgamation of so many different cultures. Its one of the most diverse places in India! I miss you Assam and all of you whom I met there.
( Big Thank you to Sneha for reading through & correcting all my Assamese knowledge!)
- Shanzé -
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