How Chicken & Rice Welcomed Me to Arunachal Pradesh
Neetole Mitra visits the village of Telluliang in Arunachal Pradhesh, and is welcomed with Mishmi Chambai, a simple but unique preparation of chicken and rice that is a favourite with the Mishmi tribe.
I sit on a red plastic chair outside a juice parlour in Tezu’s main market, waiting for Lakhimso to come get me. I look around at the deserted rooftop eateries, cloth shops, vegetable and grocery stalls. It is my first day in Arunachal Pradesh, and things don’t look promising. Lakhimso pulls up on his blue scooter, and ferries me to his homestay in Telluliang village, about 20 minutes from the market. The highways are quiet, with only the occasional vehicle passing by. I expected a private room at Lakhimso’s, so I am confused when I am shown into what looks like a family bedroom. School books and a geometry box are neatly stacked on a shelf. A frail man wearing traditional Mishmi clothes is curled up on the sofa outside. I am the only guest.
Lakhimso lives here with his siblings. They have opened up their home for the occasional traveler, though mostly, it is only far-away relatives and acquaintances from distant villages. I share my room with his sister Rujansu, and nephew Rigimso. By day two I have made peace with the length of the traditional Mishmi house and derive too much pleasure walking from my room to the kitchen, passing through three other rooms in between. Always a surprise whom I might find watching TV or taking a nap.
The next morning Lakhimso takes me around his village introducing me to his Mishmi relatives. Between walking through chang ghars (raised wooden homes with thatched bamboo roofs and cane floors), and talking to Mishmi sub-tribes about their customs and languages, I have been offered an opium pipe. I am still woozy when the scooter reaches an extension of the Tezu market I didn’t know existed.
The lane is lined with open-air shops. Local chicken with rust feathers streaked black and white are stacked in spacious cane baskets. It’s pouring but Lakhimso searches dedicatedly to find a large bird. It is weighed and paid for. It appears that lunch will be our co-passenger for a short while. Next, he stops at a vegetable market and we pick up local coriander called Shasung Bala. It is a warm, aromatic leaf. One more crucial ingredient needs to be picked up first — fresh black sesame seeds. “We will be eating Mishmi Chambai for lunch,” Lakhimso announces as we race through the rain on his scooter, back to Telluliang. Our co-passenger patiently endures the ride, his head hanging off the edge of the scooter, and Lakhimso checks on him now and then. A chicken that dies in transit can ruin the taste of the dish.
Mishmi Chambai is a traditional dish of the Mishmi tribe. Chambai, the traditional locally grown Mishmi sticky rice, specific to this south eastern region of Arunachal Pradesh, is mixed with roasted and ground black sesame seeds and ginger paste. Mishmi Chambai is usually a chicken and rice preparation, although chambai is often made with beef, pork, dry fish called Ah-Nga and Mithun meat ( also known as Gayal, the state animal of Arunachal Pradesh). The chicken is plucked, the skin is roasted on an open fire and then boiled with local ingredients like bamboo shoot, ginger, garlic, and local coriander called Shasung Bala. It is often consumed with another variety of coriander called the Madang for added flavour. The Mishmis typically use very little spice in their food, making do with whatever grows in the backyard.
On special occasions, Chambai is cooked with local chicken which is different from broiler chicken often found in cities. Key to the dish is that the chicken is brought home alive, and killed in the backyard. This was shockingly new to me, but for a hunter-gatherer tribe, it was all in a day's work.
Mishmi Chambai is a dish specific to the Miju and Digaru Mishmis who live primarily in the Lohit and Anjow district, (and not the Idu Mishmis who live on the other end of the Paya forest reserve in Dibang Valley). The Miju and Digaru Mishmis cook Chambai on all special occasions: on festivals like Tam-la-du (in mid-February) where all the sub-tribes of Lohit and Anjow district gather, on religious occasions like Taka puja (where the tribe prays to the soil); and Tano Puja (to the sun and earth worship for health, wellness and prosperity); and of course, for guests.
Roasting the chicken
Cooking down the gravy
Rice mixed with sesame and ginger
Recipe: Mishmi Chambai with Chicken
Ingredients
1 kg Chicken
2/3 cup chopped ginger
3-4 garlic cloves
2 cup bamboo shoot (sour)
2-3 chillies
1 bunch coriander leaves (shasung bala)
½ cup roasted and ground black sesame
3 cup chambai rice
Method
Pluck the feathers off the chicken, but keep the skin on.
Roast the chicken on an open flame, then cut into pieces.
Bring 1.5 litres of water to boil in a pot.
Put the bamboo shoot in the boiling water and cook until soft.
Add in the ginger paste, garlic paste, salt and chopped chilles.
Add the chicken and cook till tender.
Add coriander at the end and turn off the flame.
Boil Chambai rice.
Spread out cooked rice on a big platter and mix in with black sesame powder and ginger paste.
Serve rice and chicken pieces on a plate.
Serve chicken broth with bamboo shoot in separate bowl.
Traditionally the dish is served on brass utensils, believed to enhance the taste of the food.
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