Write an essay on Food of Assam
Answers
Answer:
Rice is the staple diet and the common people of Assam eat it everyday. Along with rice, fish curry is very common. Other dishes include those made of lentils, vegetables, meat and some sweet dishes. The people of Assam prefer to eat non - spicy foods.
I also understood that, like other cuisines from the north-eastern states, the hallmark of Assamese cuisine is simplicity. It uses minimum oil and less masala (spices). Mustard oil is the preferred cooking medium. The food is healthy and emphasises the use of herbs like ginger, garlic, onion and coriander.
Answer:
Assamese cuisine is the cuisine 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[4] and those from the plains that provide fresh vegetables and an abundance of fish and meat. Both are centred on the main ingredient — rice. The confluence of varied cultural influences in the Assam Valley has led to the staggering variety and flavours in the Assamese food. It is characterized by the use of an extremely wide variety of plant as well as animal products, owing to their abundance in the region. It is a mixture of indigenous styles with considerable regional variations and some external influences. The traditional way of cooking and the cuisine of Assam is very similar to other South-East Asian countries like 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. 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.[5]) The preferred oil for cooking is the pungent mustard oil.
A traditional meal in Assam begins with a khar, a class of dishes named after the main ingredient. Another very common dish is tenga, a sour dish. Traditionally, both khar and tenga are not eaten together in the same meal. The food is usually served in bell metal utensils made by an indigenous community called Mariya. The belief is that when food and water is served in such utensils its good for health and boost up immunity. Tamul (betel nut, generally raw) and paan generally concludes the meal.
Though still obscure, this cuisine has seen wider notice in recent times.[6] The discovery of this cuisine in the popular media continues, with the presenters yet to settle on the language and the specific distinctiveness to describe it.