Manipuri cuisine

Basic diet

The staple diet of Manipur consists of rice, fish, and large varieties of leafy vegetables, both aquatic and terrestrial. Vegetables are typically raised in kitchen gardens, and fish are reared in small ponds called pukhri around the house. Because ingredients are either homegrown or obtained from local markets, the cuisine is highly seasonal, with each season offering its own special vegetables and preparations. The taste differs from other Indian cuisines due to the use of various aromatic herbs and roots peculiar to the region, such as mint, Hooker chives, Chinese chives, Mexican coriander, lemon basil, chameleon plant, Sichuan peppercorn, Vietnamese coriander, pepper cress, galangal, and several types of mushrooms.

Some ingredients require an acquired taste, including hawaijaar (fermented soya bean), soibum (fermented bamboo shoot), ngaa-ri (fermented fish), and hentak (fermented fish powder and herbs).

Dishes

Eromba is a chutney of vegetables boiled or steamed with red chillies or umorok (king chilli) and ngari, smoked or roasted fish, then mashed together and garnished with herbs like maroi. Singju is a piquant salad of julienned raw vegetables such as cabbage, lotus stem, banana flower, and tree beans, seasoned with a chili paste flavored with roasted ngari or with roasted thoiding seeds powder and roasted chick pea powder plus roasted red chili powder; thoiding seeds give a nutty flavor.

Chamthong or kangshoi is a soupy stew of seasonal vegetables with onions, maroi, ginger, ngari, and salt, topped with ngari, dried fish, or fried fish pieces, eaten with rice. Morok metpa is a coarse paste of green or dry red chilies mixed with chopped onions, coriander leaves, and local herbs, steamed or roasted with ngari, then mashed with salt; fried fish pieces may be added. Kang-ngou or kaang-hou consists of various vegetables stir-fried with traditional spices.

Nganam is fish and maroi baked on a pan. Paaknam is a pancake of pea flour, maroi napaakpi, banana flower, Mexican coriander, and ngari wrapped in turmeric and banana leaves, then baked or steamed and roasted. Nga thongba is a fish curry, nga ataoba thongba is a fried fish curry, and nga atoiba is mashed fish.