Greetings dear all! Welcome to my site *Cuisine de Exotique*.
This site is all about the exquisite and exotic food habit and style of cooking from the far North Eastern corner of India. Specially from the place where I have been born and brought up. My motherland Manipur -'The Jeweled Land' being it's literal meaning. Allow me first to give a brief description of my place before I get down directly to the Culinary part so as you might all enjoy the cuisines more with some knowledge about the place where the traditional way of cooking them originated. Yes, these days, the style of cooking the ethnic food has improvised with time but I would be trying my best to present before you all both the traditional and improvised forms as this blog evolves in future.
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| View of Loktak Lake |
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| Sangai, The Brow Antlered Deer. |
Manipur happens to be a place where mother nature is in it's pristine glory. Nestling high in a lofty lush green corner of the Middle Himalayan Range this place happens to be natures playground. Surrounded by ranges of blue hills is the oval shaped valley at the center. Waterfalls cascading from the mountains and hills.... rivers and streams meandering across the fields.... lush green meadows where the ponies and cattle graze. Loktak, the largest freshwater lake in North East India which hosts the only floating National Park in the world - Keibul Lamjao where the rare Sangai, the dancing deer dwells.... The rare Siroy Lily from the Siroy hills & Dzuko Lily from the Dzuko Valley... Lotus & water lilies, butterflies and bumblebees... The state bird Nongyeen - 'Mrs. Hume's barbacked pheasant'. Exquisite flora and fauna adorns this place. So does exotic herbs, vegetables and plants with high medicinal values. The herbs off course we all make use of in preparing the delicacies. So rich in culture and tradition, any visitor is sure to get enchanted. Customs, festivities, dances, art & theater, handloom & handicrafts, martial arts & sports .one gets enthralled in everything you witness
here The Laiharaoba dance... Pung cholom... The fierce form of ThangTa, our traditional form of martial art using swords, spades, spears combined with the skill and grace of flawless fluid sword dancing shows the might, strength, skill and grace with which our ancestors ruled and made conquests. Lord B. Pemberton in his History of Manipur quoted " The Manipuries are born riders". Indeed it is a befitting compliment for us for we gave the world the game of Polo. This regal game originated here and later on was introduced to the British by my ancestors. Undoubtedly this place is enchanting, the tradition is elegant, art and culture is royal, the sport is royal... So is the food! Exotic, exquisite and royal. Tribal dances of the various tribes dwelling mostly in the hills..The graceful and elegant classical Ras Leela dance created by Rajashree Bhagyachandra out of his enchanting dream of Lord Krishna.
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| ThangTa |
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| Ras Leela |
There is non in the world who does not love good food. I love good food.. be it traditional delicacies from my home state or other parts of the country or the world. I enjoy cooking and do not mind spending hours in the kitchen preparing snacks,lunch or dinner for my family, friends and my guests. At times, from morn till afternoon I would be in office and then in the field along with my visitors... 4 PM am back home preparing food, get fresh and serve dinner to my guests by 8.30 PM. I love those days. Coming from a lineage who happen to be rulers of Manipur in the bygone era, the food habit in my family has always been of good taste. From my father's side, my great grandfather being the crowned prince, not less than 50 dishes had always been on the lunch/dinner menu every single day. So many traditional cuisines and the royal household members were served the best. No doubt Brahmin's were the chefs but the ladies of the royal household knew all about the art of cooking the delicacies.
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| Sagol Kangjei, the original form of Polo. |
From my Mom's side too, coming from the Karta Piba (Rajashree Bhagyachandra)lineage, the best food had always been on the menu. Gone are the days of rulers and royalty but the habit of relishing good food passed on to the future generation. I learnt a lot from the way my granny cooked and then watching mom cook with love and patience for us. Also, my years in Delhi and travels across the country gave me the chance to pick up knowledge about a wide range of cuisines from all over. Planning bring out a book on our Ethnic traditional exotic cuisines of the country and in the meantime would be posting on this blog the recipes and cooking tips etc. while details about medicinal herbs, spices, vegetables etc. would be posted on my main blog http://thedreamweaverwrites.blogspot.in/ .
Please do drop in frequently to read my posts and comment on them. Would love to interact with you all. Being a dream weaver myself I would love to share my dreams and realities with one and all. Thanking you!
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