From our village kitchen...

It is always a proud moment when the kids in the family make you go "wow". This Magh Bihu ( The harvest festival that coincides with Makar Sankranti) this is exactly what happened. These days when  your family and it's extended members are connected on social media, it is only natural that you get to know of things through such medium. We saw this post about " Akholor Juti " / Flavours of the kitchen rather Flavours of my kitchen on Gunjan's Facebook page. Gunjan is P's kid cousin ; his Mama's son from Tezpur , a beautiful town in Assam. 

The love for food runs in the family and it is heartening to see youngsters trying to revive traditional and forgotten cuisines.This bihu a bunch of childhood friends Bibhakar Sharma ( Gunjan) , Debojyoti Dutta, Rahul Kashyap ( who made the posters) came up with Akholor Juti with the hope of serving the people of their howetown some "not too common" but very authentic Assamese flavours like Bahor Sunga t diya Kukura or Chicken cooked inside a bamboo. Gunjan's mother and our Maami Mitali Sharma joined them too. Another friend Riya Masoom came on board to help with marketing and promotions. And thus begun the Flavours of the Kitchen or Akholor Juti.

Going by the response of their clients on Social Media, we could guess the result of this endevour.

Here's what these enterprising bunch of young faces behind Akholor Juti have to say about their venture.  

Q1) How did Akholor Juti happen. Who are involved in this?

It happens often when some ideas simply keeps piling up inside our mind and we hardly do anything about them. Well, Akholor Juti was one that broke the pile of thoughts. Starting up something was always there at the back of our mind, but what to start and how to start was not lucid. Than this idea of starting a food delivery chain suddenly followed up. The idea was to bring something to the people of our hometown who were lagging in terms of these types of services. This followed up with number of conversations with family members and close friends and ended up as an initiative which would never have been this overwhelming if it were not for the people of my town, Tezpur for their immense support. When the plan took a firm turn, we knew this for sure that our people have missed something huge in their food choices and that's when the idea to add ethnic flavours in our dish popped in. Moreover , we wanted to do it in a time where the prevalence of the dish is at its peak and what could have been better than Magh Bihu? So, without much ado, we planned the further details and thus, 'Akholor Juti's happened and our prior aim was to serve happiness at the doorsteps with flavours they have missed for long.

Bahor Sunga / Bamboo hollow

Q2) Did you already know the recipe ? Do you have any helping hands in the kitchen?

Yes, the recipe was already known to us, as it was the result of some further experimentation which we have done back in our kitchen, mostly during the wintry nights of December and January.The recipe was always simple,but bringing in something new in the form of ethnic Assamese tradition and to amplify the taste buds of the people was always our sole motive.

Yes,there were a handful of people involved in the kitchen which helped us turn this idea of serving ethnic Assamese cuisine to doorstep a reality.

The Bamboo Hollows getting cooked

Q3) How was the response?

When we started of with the idea, we were reluctant of the fact that will people actually be on the same page as that to us in terms of the quality and the taste we have promised. To begin with, the responses were limited, but as more people got the opportunity to taste our cuisine, responses and good wishes flooded up in the social media which was our portal of marketing and eventually we ended up drop-shipping over 120 orders in just 2 days .What was most satisfying for us was the fact that we were able to create a goodwill and brand image and thereby create a bond with the people that we aspired of through Akholor Juti.

The cooked chicken

Q4) Were you prepared for this kind of response?

To be frank ,we never expected the responses that we have been getting, as Akholor Juti started of as an initiative we took to put a small foot forward in realising our idea of serving people with succulent cuisine ,right at their doorstep. The responses that we received will only motivate us and keep us in good shape to work hard on our ideas in bringing up something new, which we as consumers always fancied of. More than the responses,we were actually happy about the changes that we were able to bring in this dynamic food –chain market.

Chicken

Q5) What are the future plans for Akholor Juti?

Future plans are actually very hard to pen down as we are working in a very dynamic and versatile market .But with the love and support that people have shown for Akholor Juti, we are only planning to turn Akholor Juti into a complete package of fusion cuisine with the taste of both modern and ethinic food to serve the people with cuisines that will not only bring a change in their taste buds but also leave behind that lasting change. Akholor Juti has been a learning curve for us and we can promise that better days are coming in terms of all the food enthusiastic people of Assam. Here, we can promise that our plans will be very much concentrated to our people as we wish to maintain our cordial relationship with them. We will always be customer centric and will always work for the betterment of our cuisines as well our services.

DISCLAIMER : All the images are provided by the team of Akholor Juti on my request. All images are copyright protected.

Being an Assamese outside North East India

The other day someone told me that she thought I was from the same family who owns Choi Kim. Choi Kim is a Chinese Restaurant in the neighbourhood and it is run by a family whose ancestral origins can be traced to China! So you can imagine what she was referring to. I look different. No I wasn't offended. I am too used to this now and I just laughed it off saying  " No I am completely Desi".

You see I come from Assam which is in the North East of India. People in these 7 sisters of North East India, actually 8 including Sikkim, look little different. For rest of the country we look like Chinese, Japanese, Nepali but NOT Indian. Can someone please tell me How does an Indian look?

Little Bihu Dancers

This HUGE country with so many regions distinctly divided geographically and culturally how can one have a common Indian look? Who came up with that idea of "typically Indian look" in the first place? What is typically Indian? I donot have any problem with any part of the country. I am as much as an Indian as the girl in Lakshadweep or the boy in the last village of Ladakh.

Since I do not fall into the "typical Indian looking" category, there are certain things that I get to hear too often. While some are hilarious, there are some which are plain stupid and sure make me go " HUH!"

1. When I say I am from Guwahati, Assam they ask "It's somewhere in North India right?" What can I do if you did not study Geography properly at school. At times I so want to ask " What do you think about that part of India hanging at the Eastern most side?" "What do you think that state /s is/are called?"

2. There are those who say " Your accent say you are Bengali but you look like a Nepali." Well can't even blame them. They never realised there is India beyond West Bengal and there "Indians" look different and speak different languages. 

3. Do you have malls in Guwahati? Dudes it is the biggest city of North East India. ALL the domestic airlines fly there. And if one judges a place by the number of malls and showrooms, Guwahati will appear in "top 5 tier 2 cities suddenly got big" for sure.

4. Then there are some who say "Assam is totally hilly area. The weather all year round must be so good." No it is not and no to both.

5. "Is it safe to go to Assam?" a big resounding YES to this one. Come once and see for yourself. Like every other place, Assam and whole of North East also have seasons and off seasons. Come during Spring or Winter and you will understand.  

Noh Kalikai Fall, Meghalaya

Jaluk Diya Murgi Mangxo / Pepper Chicken

Middle of the week and I am bitten by the "cook something special but simple" bug. While coming back from work, I could feel the bug stirring inside. So little brain storming and zeroed upon Pepper Chicken. Simple Axomiya / Assamese style Pepper chicken or "Jaluk diya murgi mangxo " as say in Assam. That's something my mother used to make during winters. And since this time Mumbai experienced more winter than ever and before it completely bids adieu, I thought let's cook this.


So here it goes : - 


Ingredients ::


Half kg Chicken cut into medium pieces.
I used 2 table spoon of mustard oil and one tea spoon of turmeric powder to marinade the chicken pieces for about 20 minutes.


2 medium onions sliced
1 tea spoon of Ginger & Garlic paste
2 medium potatoes cut into big pieces.
1 Green chili chopped.
2 table spoon Mustard oil to cook.
1 tea spoon of freshly grounded black pepper.


Salt as per taste.


Heat oil in a kedahi. We in Assam use Mustard oil, hence I used the same. Make sure that the oil is properly heat. Add the sliced onions and cook till brown. Add ginger garlic paste and cook till everything is mixed. Since I had used turmeric to marinade the chicken, I did not use it again.




Put the chicken pieces into this onion, ginger garlic mixture and mix everything well. Add the potato pieces. In Assam, potato in chicken and mutton is a common ingredient. It's just there and no one questions that. Cook the chicken pieces in it for 10 minutes. Add the green chili and pour half cup of warm water. Give everything a thorough stir and put the lid. Put the heat to low and let the chicken cook for about 15 minutes. 

After 15 minutes check if the chicken pieces are cooked. If they are tender, time to add the star of the dish - grounded black pepper. Mix everything thoroughly but carefully. Turn on the heat and let this cook for 5 minutes. Serve hot with steamed rice or chapatti.

Jaluk diya mangxo

Looking back on R day!

As India celebrates her 67th Republic Day today, I realized I have started to take the day for granted. It has become just a holiday and more importantly if it falls on Friday or Monday, then I end up planning a short trip. But I still watch the R day parade if I have an access to TV on that day.


But there was a time when it meant more. I grew up in an Assam where once Republic Day and Independence Day were celebrated with lot of vigor and enthusiasm and then a time came when these days were seen as days one should be extra cautious and at any cost avoid going out.


My earliest memory of R day is of my primary school in Dibrugarh. That was in mid 1980s. I remember getting up early and getting ready to go to school where Head Mistress would hoist the flag. All the children would gather and sing the national anthem and the state anthem.We would be home by 10 - 10.30 am and then father would take out the flag and put it up somewhere in our house. All the houses in the neighbourhood would have the flag flying from the window, at the terrace, on a pole near the garage! Then as the sun set, dad would pull down the flag and neatly fold it and keep it inside, again to be brought out on 15th Aug. Then in the late 1980s / early 1990s  the scene changed. The ULFA called for boycotting these "Indian days" celebrations and there would be a bandh called on those days. During those violent days of Assam, we stopped this practice of hoisting the national flag in our schools, colleges and homes. R Day and I Day were the days, pre and post which we had to be extra cautious, extra careful because there would be violence somewhere. A blast, may be few killings, a terror attack. When the nation everywhere else celebrated R day and I day, we spent those days inside our homes; strictly barred from venturing out. But everyone in the family would sit in front of TV and watch the R day parade each year. That continued for a long time and I still do that.


After many years in 2009 in our Guwahati home, we hoisted the flag on Independence day that year. In 2010 I moved to Mumbai. This practice is no longer there in our home in Assam. Not even in our home in Mumbai. Today while going for morning walk, I saw the Society next to the garden had made the arrangement for a flag hoisting ceremony and it made me look back at my childhood memories of R day. I need to get a flag before I day and hoist it. Just like that.

The Tri Colour on I day 2009 in Guwahati