We caught up with Meghalayan chef Ahmedaki Laloo, who was recently in town hosting a culinary pop-up at Kava, Fairfield by Marriott. The young chef decoded Jaintia cuisine, about her culinary venture and local ingredients.
Excerpts:
How similar or different are Garo, Khasi, and Jaintia cuisines?
Definitely there are similarities, but there are a lot of differences that lie in the ingredients. Since the geography is different, the flora and fauna are also different. In Jaintia, we love to use black sesame. There’s a saying that Jaintia dishes aren’t complete till the colours of the dishes are black. Khasis are more inclined to broths, stews, salads, and chutneys. The Garos love their meat with a lot of spiciness and their Khar or soda, which they make out of burnt ashes of banana stem.
Tell us about your culinary entrepreneurial journey with A’origins.
A’origins completed two years recently. We started with the concept of bringing our food to the global map. The USP of coming from Meghalaya is that it has assets that are not found in the mainland. We tried to come up with the concept of creating experiences through food. We have chef's tasting menu where we play with seasonal native ingredients. It’s about serving authentic good food, highlighting every ingredient from the region, a story behind the dishes and also creating awareness. A’origins curates and collaborates for pop-ups, and gives consultations to other restaurants. We are coming up with a wine boutique and are also involved in the food innovation lab that the Meghalayan government is coming up with. Our logo is the sprouting fishmint which is a metaphor of pushing ourselves to gradually grow but being close to our roots.
What are the authentic culinary techniques practiced?
For a smoked pork, the way the meat is smoked it’s very traditional. The preserved, fermented or sundried fishes are traditional. Some cooking techniques of daal or bamboo shoots are very authentic. For instance, there’s one village in Meghalaya, where they ferment the bamboo shoot by keeping it in a running stream and few ferment it by keeping them in pork fat.
Three ingredients you use very often
Perilla seeds, wild garlic, wild coriander
One versatile ingredient you prefer to work with
Perilla seeds
Having stayed in Kolkata before, do you find any similarity between Meghalayan cuisine and that found in Kolkata?
Yes Mustard. We cook our food only in Mustard oil. That’s the biggest similarity I would say. We also use a lot of saag. We love our fish.
How effective do you think the pop-up model is to introduce the audience to a new cuisine?
For us who want to create awareness about new cuisine, pop-ups will always be a big platform to be able to showcase it outside their hometown. I think there’s no boundary to it. Whenever we get a chance we push for it. These pop-ups act as a catalyst to talk about who we are, where we come from and why is our food different.
When you have pop-ups for long durations, what are the shelf lives of the local ingredients that you bring from Meghalaya?
In order for the greens to stay fresh longer, we create a base where we infuse them with oil. The fish and chicken are also fine as long as we keep them in the refrigerator. Also, we plan the menu keeping the shelf lives of the ingredients in mind.
There is a global trend of fusion food but the North East is also very rooted in their traditional techniques. Is there a scope of combining the two?
That’s what we do for the chef’s tasting tables. That’s where we try to incorporate fusion but also try to be maintaining the original taste. We also create experiences in every taste that we do. It’s just not about making the food and blending it with fusion but rather fusion and highlighting a region through combined storytelling. For example, a smoked chicken is from a particular place which means that they have different way of smoking compared to another village.
Could you also tell us about desserts from the local ingredients?
Traditionally, we don’t eat desserts. But with time there are a lot of trends that you see from the Western culture. So now bakers have started increasing. But originally we have snacks which we consume during our tea-time. We don’t eat them as desserts but we nibble them with our tea. One of the snacks is Pusaw or its red velvet in a local way. It’s made by pounded red rice which is further steamed. Then we have corn cake.
One dish you have inherited that is close to your heart.
Dakharang or smoked fish where you stuff the fish with a bamboo and smoke it in wood fire. We cook that with mustard leaves, turmeric and black pepper.