Manipuri cuisine

Manipuri cuisine is the traditional cuisine of Manipur, a state of India. Dishes are typically spicy foods that use chili pepper rather than garam masala. Oil is uncommon in most Manipuri styles. The cuisine here in the state similar to the cuisines of Southeast/East/Central Asia, Siberia, Micronesia and Polynesia.

The staple diet of Manipur consists of rice, fish, large varieties of leafy vegetables (of both aquatic and terrestrial). Manipuris typically raise vegetables in a kitchen garden and rear fishes in small ponds around their house. Since the vegetables are either grown at home or obtained from local market, the cuisines are very seasonal, each season having its own special vegetables and preparations. The taste is very different from mainland Indian cuisines because of the use of various aromatic herbs and roots that are peculiar to the region and list of these aromatic herbs and roots are listed below.

Further, many large varieties of the vegetables that are used in daily meals are found only in and around the region and not seen elsewhere. Some of these are as follows:

Various kind of mushrooms also form an important part of the cuisines. These include:

There are also ingredients in the cuisine that require an acquired taste, such as Hawaijaar (fermented soya bean, somewhat similar to the Japanese Natto), Soibum (fermented bamboo shoot) and Ngaa-ri (fermented fish).

Eromba- Vegetables boiled or steamed with a lot of red chillies or umorok (king chilli) with ngari (fermented fish), smoked or roasted fish and mashed together. "U-morok" – literally ‘tree chilli’ u = tree; morok = chilli. It is garnished with herbs like maroi ( maroi nakuppi, phakpai, mayang-ton, toning-khok, kaanghumaan, lomba, tilhou, chaantruk, coriander leaves and many more).

Singju is a salad which may be prepared with finely chopped banana stem, laphu tharo (banana flower), cabbage, lotus stem, komprek (a kind of scented herb), kollamni (another herb), tree beans, coriander leaves, sinju pan, ginger, heibi mana and lots of seasonal vegetables mixed with ngari. Boiled kidney beans are optional and the dish is seasoned with red chilli flakes, salt to taste, with roasted sesame powder and roasted chick pea powder.

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Wikipedia