Thursday, June 2, 2011

Assamese Food Festival

In continuation with the post put up some time ago about the Assamese food festival that was to be held at ANTs cafe, here is the review.

Our meal started off with a drink called Kordoi, which is Assamese for star fruit. This was a really nice juice with a sweet and sour taste. Since Ms Quiche is Assamese, she was our 'guide' of sorts when it came to the food. She was all gung-ho about the food festival, dressed in a traditional Mekhela and all. The maas patotdia was a very nice chunk of fish cooked inside a banana leaf parcel. The flavours of the rohu fish were intact, and though only subtle, it was a very nice dish. Some of the other starters were fritters of pumpkin and brinjal. Along with these, there were several accompaniments like the bhoot jolokia (spiciest chilli in the world), khorisa (fermented bamboo shoots), and kharoli (fermented mustard paste).

Maas patotdia




On to the mains, and while rice was obviously going to be the staple carbohydrate source, many of us fell in love with the bengena pura, which was roasted brinjal which was them mashed. A few dals added to the melange of dishes, but what most of us were eager to reach the meats - and it was well worth the wait.




There were two fish(y) dishes, and one mutton dish. the murighonto, or fish head curry, was a flavourful, and if you aren't averse to eat fish head, this was indeed a wonderful curry, although it did involve using your hand and mouth in tandem to work the meat from it. The other fish curry, the norosingha mashur jul, was a mildly sour dish yet wonderfully flavoured with the levels of heat totally acceptable.

The mutton, mangsor jul, ooh, the mutton! How we raved about it till late in the night. Tender, tasty, in a light gravy with potatoes - clubbed with rice, this was simply amazing. We wound things off with the paayox (pronounced as paa-yosh), which was like kheer or payasa, and was also quite superb - had me literally licking the bowl clean.

Mangshor jul

Norosingha mashur jul


Can't wait for the next food fest!

2 comments:

Me! In words said...

Sounds delish! Did you lick the bowl so clean that you didn't get a photo of the paayox!! ;)

Karthik Shetty said...

Actually, in a way, yes. I forgot to add that the place had gotten really crowded and so being decent, we got up and made way for people waiting, so I actually ate my paayox walking down the stairs :)

 

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