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Welcome to 'From the Chef's Table', an exclusive series at TIMES FOODIE where we take you on a culinary journey through the diverse and rich flavours from a chef's eye of his love and interpretation of a particular region in India. In each edition, the renowned chefs explore the must-try traditional food items that every traveller should savour and bring back home. Each episode will help you understand the cultural significance of unique ingredients and flavours that define the state's culinary heritage, uncovering the stories and traditions behind them.
The North East of India is home to an extraordinary sector of the country’s cultural heritage, yet it has long remained underrepresented in the mainstream culinary landscape. However, this is beginning to change, thanks to passionate advocates like Chef Tanisha Phanbuh. Hailing from Meghalaya, Chef Phanbuh has made it her mission to highlight the rich and diverse flavours of her home state. Through her culinary venture, Tribal Gourmet, she is introducing traditional dishes from the Khasi and Garo tribes, along with lesser-known recipes from across the region, to a wider audience.
Her work goes beyond merely sharing food—it’s about preserving and celebrating the culinary traditions of Meghalaya and showcasing the depth of tribal cuisines that are deeply intertwined with nature, local ingredients, and age-old cooking techniques. Chef Phanbuh’s expertise and deep connection to her roots make her a pioneering figure in bringing these hidden gems of Indian gastronomy into the limelight.
In this edition of From the Chef’s Table, she takes us on an unforgettable culinary journey, offering her expert recommendations and personal favourites that are an absolute must-try for anyone seeking an authentic taste of Meghalaya. Prepare to discover flavours that are as unique as they are memorable.
What are the must-try traditional food items from Meghalaya that travellers should consider bringing back home?
When I started Tribal Gourmet, even now the challenge is being able to tell people about the Northeast and our culture, that we are seven different states, we have each have our own different tribes and our cultures, because in general people, I mean, for one, explaining to them where the Northeast is also a task and then to say that, we're not all one state, so don't bunch it all in together.
And now as I travel myself and I realise people ask me a lot, while I know that everybody thinks that they need to catch a flight to Guwahati to enter the Northeast, yes, it is the gateway to the Northeast. I just recently spoke to somebody and then I realised that nobody knew that each of the Northeastern states do have their own airport and all the capital cities, so you can always take 30-minute flights from Guwahati also there, so it's quite accessible."
Areas like Mylliem are known for smoked pork, so you also get fried smoked pork and or smoked beef to eat, and also to carry, so they also package it, that's something I would suggest bringing back because the pork quality itself and the smoked pork is something you won’t get anywhere else.
Can you explain the cultural significance of any dishes or flavours that are unique only to Meghalaya?
Locals themselves eat at the tea stalls, this is what I always suggest ‘live like a local, eat like a local’, and the tea stalls are everywhere actually, they're dotted all around town, but since they don't look, feel, or have signage that says, ‘this is a restaurant, this is a cafe’, so people overlook it. If you're a tourist, you'll probably overlook it, you won't see it, but those are the best places where you will get the freshest and the best kind of local food because it's cooked on a daily basis, from morning they start cooking and by evening all of their, they've sold out everything, so that's always the best place and they cook seasonal items, if there's seasonal greens coming in, then there will be seasonal greens on the menu.
I feel like Meghalaya is also a great place to start for somebody new because the accessibility to it is excellent, there are lots of places to go see and discover, it's not just greenery, there are a lot of things to cover and food-wise also I feel like it is the mildest in terms of flavour and yes, of course, we also do have things like the Tungrymbai, which is the counterpart of the Naga Axone which is the smelly bean, but in general I think for newcomers whose palates may probably not be as advanced or as adventurous as a lot of people, it's a very easy-going flavour profile.
What do you remember most about food from your childhood?
There’s a stereotype that I wish to break about Meghalayan food always being meat because there are always a lot of vegetarian items there and it's always kept separately also, the veg items are not mixed with the non-veg items, there are different shelves for it, they have these little glass shelves where they put the food. There will always be a vegetable stew, so what they do is they give you rice on a plate first, and they'll ask you if you want like white rice or the jadoh. Now of course the jadoh is something that's cooked with some meat, so that's not vegetarian but there'll always be either a stew, there'll be a dal, there's always different kinds of vegetables like fried peas or mixed vegetables. There'll always be lots of chutneys, lots of salads, like the mooli with perilla seed or if there is squash in season like right now then you'll get squash on the menu. There are different kinds of potatoes, you'll get mashed potato balls, you'll get a fried potato, you'll get like big chunky fried potatoes and crispy thin julienne potatoes also, then there'll always be lots of chutneys that are freshly made and salads, so there's always options for vegetarians as well, it's just where to look at and what to ask.
For the non-vegetarians of course it's a meat paradise because the best pork and any meat actually is much better, much tastier in the northeast, we are of course very famous for pork. I would definitely say you have to try the different pork items that are there, the most common one being the black sesame one that you will absolutely find in every shop. Apart from that they also do offals because we as a tribe, as a culture, don't waste anything because we come from very humble beginnings and everything within our cultures and everything our forefathers passed down to us. It's about being not wasteful and being humble, so we use all parts of the animal, so offals are also always there because they sell every part of the animal, so we have delicacies from everything, like if I say the pig for example, the pig brain is a delicacy, that you will not find in the tea stalls because it's quite expensive to buy the brain and make the pig brain salad delicacy, I have done it at two or three of my pop-ups where we use the pig cheek, the ears, and we use trotters separately, all of the meat cuts obviously, plus things like intestines like the khasis have the version of the Scottish blood sausage, we have our own version too, and then even with beef and all of that, we use everything down to the tripe, chicken also, skin is also used, it's actually one of my favorite things, so I would definitely suggest if there's somebody who's adventurous with trying, then definitely try out all this.
Also Read: From The Chef’s Table: Chef Avinash Martins Talks About The Food And Flavours Of Goa
What are some of your favourite dishes that showcase the flavours of Meghalaya?
I don't really pick too many favourites, for me all food is equal, and we eat things seasonally as well, so when the season comes then we all crave different things. Like right now, the season has just started, (because it's just about beginning to get colder now) so this is when the bean paste comes into the market, because although the fermented bean paste is had all year round by like the Nagas, they have a different process for cooking it, our one is wet, a little bit more wet and sticky, so we don't do it in the summers, because that gets spoiled. So it's a winter food, and at this time everyone's favourite is like a nice hot bowl of rice, a hot stew with our mustard greens. It is like the sarson (mustard greens) family, but they're much bigger leaves, and they have a different taste and different texture, that and a big dollop of the bean paste is something I look forward to in the winters.
For those unfamiliar with Meghalaya's cuisine, what dishes would you offer them in the thali for the first traditional meal?
Essentially, between the Khasi and Jain tribes, the black sesame gravy is something you'll find popping up very often. It's what we use to cook pork, we also make chicken or fish or mushrooms with it. It's quite common across the different dishes, even the offals and all of that are cooked with that. We also use a lot of pepper, and of course, turmeric, one of our main, not only exports, but right now that is bringing a lot of attention back to the state, is the Lakadong turmeric, which is the purest turmeric in the world, comes from Meghalaya, and so we do use a lot of turmeric also, and fat pepper.
So if I can just give you an example from my pop-ups itself, I try to curate, start to finish, and have at least one to two dishes that are from each tribe, so that I give people a taste of Meghalaya as a state as a whole and try to keep it as seasonal as possible.
Meghalaya is home to many kinds of mushrooms, mostly that grow wild and are foraged. It’s mostly damp and cold climatic conditions are great environments for mushrooms to thrive in calling for a variety of mushrooms from wood mushrooms to chanterelles to what is popularly known as chicken (it looks like shredded chicken). Most mushrooms are simply stir fried or cooked with black sesame, the recipe I am sharing today.
Mushrooms in Black Sesame Paste
Ingredients
- 2 large Onions, sliced
- 1 inch Ginger, pounded (juice extracted)
- 50 g Black sesame seeds, soaked and ground to a paste
- ½ tsp Turmeric powder
- ½ tsp Crushed black pepper
- Salt, to taste
- 200 g Mushrooms of your choice, sliced
- Mustard oil, for cooking
- 1 Bay leaf
- 1 Dried red chilli (optional)
Method
- Heat mustard oil in a pan.
- Add the bay leaf and dried red chilli, allowing them to release their flavours.
- Add the sliced onions and sauté until they turn golden brown.
- Stir in the turmeric, salt, and crushed black pepper, mixing well.
- Add the ground black sesame paste, stirring continuously until the raw smell fades. Add small amounts of water if needed to avoid sticking.
- Once the paste is fragrant and smooth, add the sliced mushrooms and cook until tender.
- Squeeze the ginger juice over the cooked dish and discard the pulp.