Traditional Bodo Cuisine and Bodo Rice Beer
Indian cuisines are delicious! There are too many of them. India is diverse in terms of people, their cultures and beliefs, terrains, soil, climate and therefore the cuisines vary substantially from each other. Almost each geographical region has evolved a typical style of food depending on the spices, grains, fruits and vegetables. How many of the regional and traditional cuisines of India have you tasted?
Adding one more cuisine for you to try when you tour Assam is the Bodoland cuisine! And yes at the outset I would like to stress on the fact that Bodoland cuisine doesn’t comprise of snakes and frogs. These are misconceptions, not one bit true! But yes they do have a variety of insects.
Traditional Bodo Cuisine
Rice and fish is the principal food of Bodo people. Rice is served boiled, hand pounded and steamed, powdered to use as thickening agent for curries and also fermented to make beer and wine. Rice grows easily in the plains of Bodoland and Assam and put to good use too.
They ferment vegetables and dry fish and meat to consume during the leaner days. It is the fermented dishes that give a distinct identity to Bodo cuisine. Most popular fermented dish of Bodo people is Napham – it is made by grinding smoked fish, specific leafy vegetables, masala powder. This mixture is aged in a scaled bamboo cylinder. The process of fermentation is similar for vegetables and meat. I am glad this traditional method of stocking up is still in practice.
They consume meat too. Pork is the most loved meat dish of Bodos. Another of their favorite is the snail! Yet another – the silkworm! All these contribute to a very unique cuisine in Bodoland.
Lunch in Bodoland
Breakfast in Bodoland
You will find them consuming rice based dishes right from breakfast time. Even in states of south India you get rice based dishes like idli, dosa for breakfast. But here in Bodoland it is so different. I was served rice cake, steamed rice and tea. The rice cake did remind me of the same called puttu in Kerala. Rice cake of Bodoland is called pitha, there is a wide variety of them.
They soak the rice over night in water, next morning this soaked rice is hand pounded to a coarse powdery state. It is then kneaded with just sufficient water and pinch of salt so that the dough is neither too sticky nor too loose. It is spread on a container layered with cloth, on this they spread hand pounded sesame seeds and jaggery (molasses). Then another layer of rice powder is spread on it and finally covered with cloth. The container is now steamed by placing over a bigger pot with boiling water. After turning few times the rice cake is cooked well from all sides and ready to serve.
For festivals they prepare a variety of these pitha with variations in filling. Interestingly there is one pitha which has no filling, no sugar or salt. It is called the Dangua Pitha. This pitha is offered to Gods and Goddesses or departed souls of their households.
Pitha Perfect, Sticky Rice and Lal cha (red tea -without milk, with molasses)
Lunch in Bodoland
Bodoland cuisine is one of those few cuisines of India which does not serve biryani or pulao! That meant they have very minimal use of spices. Along with rice they served several delicacies of Bodo cuisine. Interestingly none of the non veg item was a standalone dish, meaning chicken, crabs all were made with lintels or vegetables. This gives a unique identity, taste and flavor to the dishes that can’t be matched with other cuisines of India. Snails were made with black gram, crabs with roselle leaves, chicken too with turmeric and black gram and pork with spinach. It is Bodo specialty to cook non veg items with leafy vegetables.
Green leafy vegetables
Some spinach is cooked standalone and those and vegetables are the only items that save the vegetarian from starving in these regions.
- Lapa Mwidru – a kind of spinach
- Morapaat – jute leaves – love this. I can survive on just this and steamed rice.
- Taso Bisong – Yam leaves – mostly used with fish and meat dishes too.
- Narzi – dry jute leaves – tastes slightly bitter
Below are the names of Bodo dishes you must be familiar with to know what you are served. There are hotels in Guahati in Assam too that serve Bodo cuisine.
Traditional Bodo Lunch
Non-veg Bodo Dishes
- Mwita Kangkrai – crab with roselle leaves
- Napham – fermented fish chutney – This is a must have if you love trying out fish variations
- Sobai Jwng Dau Jwng – Chicken in roasted black gram
- Daau Jwng Kumra Jwng – Chicken curry cooked with White gourd melon
- Ondla Jwng Naa Jwng – Fish curry with rice powder
- Sobai Jwng Oma Gwran Jwng – Smoked Pork with Black Gram
- Emphow Jwng Mwitha Jwng – Silk worm cooked with Roselle leaves
Silkworm Fry
If you visit Bodoland chances are that you will be served with a plate full of silkworm fries! That is one of the strangest dishes I have come across in my travels. Most houses of Bodoland are into silk weaving, for which they grow silkworms. Most of the worms are left to form cocoons from which they extract silk threads. Some are set aside to prepare the delicacy – silkworm fries. I am told they taste like prawns. To the brave who experiment have you ever tried this dish.
These worms have good food values. Silkworms feed only on mulberry leaves and are low in fat content, high in calcium, and have other minerals like Vitamin B1, B2 and B3, Protein, Iron, Magnesium and Sodium. I saw friends gulp them down with rice beer.
Silkworm Fry in Bodoland
How to eat snails?
When they served me Samo inkri Sobai jang – Snail with black gram, I was clueless how to get the flesh out of it. Does one bite into them? But our hosts showed us how to eat them. This is a very tasty dish. You have to know the technique of having the snail. Since they are cooked with shells eating them is tricky. You have to eat the snails one by one. The right way of eating the snails is by sucking out the meat from the bigger end. The small bit of snail flesh lands in your mouth with a very earthy flavor.
Samo inkri Sobai jang – Snail with black gram
What is the favorite beverage of Bodos?
It is rice beer; Bodo people will shout this answer in chorus. Rice beer has tremendous significance in social life of Bodoland people. They offer it to Bathwubwrai – the supreme God of Bathou religion of Bodo people and also to other Gods and Goddesses. Rice beer is consumed in all social functions. They offer it to guests as a symbol of love and respect. Being mostly farmers for their livelihood, rice beer is a must after a day’s of hard labor. It surprised me that rice beer is used for its medicinal properties too. Especially for diseases like disorder of bowel or other stomach problems, sipping rice beer is the remedy.
Amao for rice beer
How is Rice Beer Prepared?
To prepare rice beer the most essential ingredient is Amao – prepared from rice powder, a kind of wild plant called Mokhna (clerodendrum viscosum), some leaves of jack fruit, sugar cane, pineapple and roots of agsrchita (plumbago zeylenica) a kind of small plant, all these things are mixed and ground together. A small quantity of old Amao is added to this. At Kaliagaon Village they demonstrated a wonderful setup of how they make rice beer. No huge technology involved but simple principles of evaporation, condensation and distillation. Here is a small video on it as explained by a local there.
Goi Phathwi – Betel Leaf and Nut
Bodo meal is concluded with goi-phathwi (betel nut and leaf). Several stalls in Dwijing Festival were selling them. It is believed to aid digestion, therefore after a heavy meal this is a must have for the locals of Bodoland.
Goi Phathwi Betel nut and leaf Traditional Bodo cuisine
Food enthusiasts, have you had any of these items? Head to Bodoland to taste this traditional cuisine of India. Thanks to initiative of Ambassadors of Bodoland, I could be a part of their grand project. If you liked this article here is a pic to pin to your collection.
I had read this story of yours in DH and found it very interesting. 🙂 Would love to have bodo cuisine one day.
As for, fried silkworms, yes, fried cockroaches & small snakes were offered to us in Cambodia. 🙂 Earthworms in soup somewhere else. 🙂
What I hate to do is to eat snails or oyster slowly one by one. That takes away the fun of eating for me.
Fish fry practical
I love how Indian is the only cuisine I know that takes time and effort to make. There are so many layers of processes (look at the rice beer!) on how Indian food is made and I think that’s outstanding! One of my best friends is Indian and he’s always making everything from scratch. I feel so privileged he’s generous enough to share some recipes!
I also love how you write – they’re very detailed but not overwhelming. Food is often hard to understand but this one is digestible!
Every time I see photo of Indian food it makes me realise how varied the regions are in their foods. And how much more I need to eat. Sadly I don’t drink beer, so I’ll have to continue being un- Australian and just eat more Indian food.
Never heard of bodo cuisine before, but saying that never explored that place so far. But the food looks amazing those vegetable platter look appetising. And that rice beer something definitely i wanted to try.
I wouldn’t have the heart to try the silkworms and snail 🙂 Bodo cuisine is so unique. It proves yet again, how our foods are influenced by local produce of the region where we live.
Wow, what an interesting cuisine and so different than other regions in India. The traditional Bodo lunch looks appetizing and looks very healthy. It’s interesting that few spices are used in their cooking. I don’t think I would try the Silk worms, you are very brave Indrani! I loved the video about rice beer making – I worked in the beer business for many years, and this is a first for seeing beer made this way! Very interesting!
Wow… That is a lot of information that you have put together for the Bodo cuisine. I am all for tasting that rice beer along with jute leaves. The reaction you have shared to the latter makes me wonder what it would be like
I can eat snails in coocnut milk but my gosh a plate of silkworm fries, I have to think twice.
In the Philippines, only the old ones eat bettel nut and leaf after every meal. It was a cultural thing
way, way back but the young ones find it odd today. It is nice that at this modern times, the people of Assam still do it.
I am Bangali and since Assam is not too far away, I can see some similarities with Bengali cuisine like pan shupari (leaf and nut), bhapa pitha that is served for breakfast and jute leaves but I was not expecting silkworm and snails! Very interesting cuisine!
One should not read this post prior to lunch or dinner, else they immediately crave some tasty Indian food. I hadn’t heard of Bodo cuisine prior to this, but it looks delicious. I like fermented foods so I”m sure I’d enjoy lunch – and that rice cake and lovely veg accompanied by rice beer – in Bodoland.
I have made rice milk but have never heard of rice beer. The jack fruit, sugar cane, pineapple sound like a good combination. What is the a alcohol content?
When I hear about Indian dishes I think about spicy food, I didn’t expect to see silkworm fries and snails parts of the Indian cuisine. I haven’t heard of rice beer, i would give it a try if I can.
Amazing. Thanks for sharing.
Snails have an ‘earthy flavor’, I like that 😀 … but no thanks. I’ll pass on the Silkworms too. Glad to see I’m not the only sissy in that respect. I tried very hard to try some sort of grub worm/larva thing in Sabah and I just couldn’t do it. Nope. I was a big intrepid traveler fail. But the rest of the Bodo cuisine looks quite delicious. Especially the assortment of greens. You’ve got me very intrigued about Bodoland.
Your first sentence got me thinking: so there are more “cuisines” in India? For me it’s just Indian food, but as it appears you consider different regions in India as having different cuisines. My family loves Indian food and it would be ver interesting to try some of these traditional Bodo dishes, but I don’t think we can find them here, in California. The fermented fish chutney is something that my husband would surely love (he is a fish devotee, hahaha!)
When we visited India, we did find that the cuisine varied by region. Glad to know that Bobo cuisine does not include snakes and frogs. Although insects may not tempt me either. But the fact that they use less spices may mean that this would be a cuisine for me to try. Plus leafy veggies and fish and I am good to go.
I never knew you could eat silkworm Indrani. That is pretty neat. I love fermented veggies as well.
Bodo cuisine sounds interesting indeed. I’m intrigued with the way Napham is made in a scaled bamboo cylinder. And as you said, it’s great that this way of traditional cooking hasn’t been lost. I’m up for tasting unusual dishes (if I can stomach it). I can handle snails, as I love escargot, but silkworm I’ve never tried. Since it tastes like prawn and full of protein and vitamins, I think I will give it a go!
Oh man, I’d totally be down to trying the Silkworm fries and the snails with black gram. Then I’d wash it all down with some rice beer and call it a day! Kind of reminds me of Laos food where everything and anything will just about end up on your plate 🙂 This is my kind of food adventure.
I would try any of the dishes except for the silk worm fry!
Wow, food looks fantastic, you had me at everything except for the worms, lol. I have never tried rice beer so that looks wonderful and definitely I would love to try that some day.
Love local cuisines. Though it might be an acquired taste for many dishes, exploring these is exciting.