Bell metal utensils were once very common in an
assamese household ,but their use is very limited in present day households .......in my home bell metal plates and bowls are used in lunch time,so as to keep in touch with old tradition otherwise kids never get a chance to learn about all these important things.Once in a while we use banana leaves as plates to serve the meal.......kids love it a lot ...
infact Gauri (my daughter) loves to arrange the table that day.The picture below is of
BAAN-
BATI ........used to offer honoured guests
JALPAAN .
JALPAAN means traditional sweet items which mainly consists of a
varieties of puffed or
flattened rice (
cheera ,
akhoi,
muri,
hurum,
kumol chawal,
bora chawal) ....served with curd(sweetened or plain) or cream......it can be further sweetened with
jaggery.Just this morning right after our breakfast we received a call that a group of seven people(our village folks) are coming to our house.Whenever they have some work in city ..they rent a vehicle and come in group ...this way they save money,help each other plus elderly folks are in constant care of the younger ones....so less worries back home until they reach back.Once they reach
Guwahati our house is a
convenient place for them to refresh and have a cup of tea or so.......we to get to meet them and update ourselves with all the latest news from village.
Two elderly
khuras(uncles)
don't eat cooked food outside so we served them
DOI-
CHEERA(sweet curd and beaten rice)........for rest of the group including driver it was
LUSI-
GHUGHUNI(
puris made with
maida and
lobia)......luckily we had
LALMOHANS(
gulabjamuns) as sweet .After a round of hot cup of tea they left the house........all of them had brought something for us......lemon,green veggies of varied
varieties,rice,home made
cheera etc......and of course two packets of LAYS CHIPS too. I am taking a week break here ..........so friends see you all after a week or so.......REGARDS for all of you.
JALPAAN means traditional sweet items which mainly consists of a varieties of puffed or flattened rice (cheera ,akhoi,muri,hurum,kumol chawal,bora chawal) ....served with curd(sweetened or plain) or cream......it can be further sweetened with jaggery.Just this morning right after our breakfast we received a call that a group of seven people(our village folks) are coming to our house.Whenever they have some work in city ..they rent a vehicle and come in group ...this way they save money,help each other plus elderly folks are in constant care of the younger ones....so less worries back home until they reach back.Once they reach Guwahati our house is a convenient place for them to refresh and have a cup of tea or so.......we to get to meet them and update ourselves with all the latest news from village.
Two elderly khuras(uncles) don't eat cooked food outside so we served them DOI-CHEERA(sweet curd and beaten rice)........for rest of the group including driver it was LUSI-GHUGHUNI(puris made with maida and lobia)......luckily we had LALMOHANS(gulabjamuns) as sweet .After a round of hot cup of tea they left the house........all of them had brought something for us......lemon,green veggies of varied varieties,rice,home made cheera etc......and of course two packets of LAYS CHIPS too. I am taking a week break here ..........so friends see you all after a week or so.......REGARDS for all of you.
kavita ji........
ReplyDeleteek bar fir shandar post.....
aaj rail budget ke karan aapke blog par deri se aana hua...
mafi chahta hu....
This all looks very delicious. We don't seem to have many Indian restaurants here in Hawaii. Have a restful break, Kavita. See you in a week.
ReplyDeleteKavita, enjoy your vacation! We will be waiting for your return.
ReplyDeleteThe food looks interesting and sweet. Do you drink Darjeeling Tea? Black tea or green tea?
bapre...1 week without motivating mails from K...have to grin and bear it..enjoy:(
ReplyDelete@KAY,GIGI...thank you...i will too miss you all....GIGI,Assam is famous for its tea gardens...we get here real good tealeaves...one can choose from dft.aromas,flavour and from light to strong one....here black tea is very popular....i use a mixture of many tea leaves Darjeeling+Assam tea and it tastes great.....my husband loves green tea and makes me drink atleast a cup /day...but i am a black tea addict....i love my mixture tea a lot.I am visiting Darjeeling too this week so i will get my quota of tea leaves right from there.
ReplyDeleteI rarely drink tea -- only when I am dining in a Chinese restaurant.
ReplyDeleteI am a coffee addict. Love to fill my glass with ice cubes, then pour in coffee, and then skim milk. mmmm. Iced coffee is delicious!
u want idlis?? ok take a flight to chennai.am just calling up my wife..:) shucks...one weeekkkkk?????
ReplyDelete@Thank you Ramesh......i am off to makemytrip.com
ReplyDeleteI really feel blessed to be a Malaysian, getting the chance to sample all sort of delicacies. Tasted puri before and its really good!
ReplyDeleteThis was a great meal.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your week off. Can't wait for your comeback :)
Have a terrific week off.
ReplyDeleteintiguing cuisine. have a good vacation. we are now home...
ReplyDeleteTheres a lot of common food items in the assamese and the bengali communities, doi cheera is a fav brkfast thing for us during the summers, quite nicely replaces the milk and cereal thing. loved the utensils reminded me of my grandma's place.
ReplyDeleteHospitality in an Assamese way is really nice :) and your effort to keep in touch with old tradition is appreciable.
ReplyDeleteThe food items look inviting and sound simply delicious :) will definitely miss your interesting pieces of writing for the week.
Wishing you and your family a very "Happy Vacation"; hope you will bring back from the tour a basket full of memories and photos to share :)
Take care,
Cheers, Sai.
nice to see those plates. We too had simlar brass plates but hardly used them, since they required regular cleaning with lime or tamarind.
ReplyDeleteWe too have meal on a banana leaf, it tastes wonderful and spreadout. :))
know door closed..but came to knock as u r a gr8 friend..cheers
ReplyDeleteIn Kashmir, at the famous "Kheer Bhawani" temple devoted to one of the incarnations of Goddess Durga, these maida puris are called "Luchis" ("ch" pronounced as in "Bachchan"). These puris are served with suji halwa and traditional Kashmiri "Kehwa" tea after the visitors offered prayers at the temple. Luchi-halwa and kehwa used to be one of the high points of visits to the temple when we were children and Kashmir was still paradise on earth. I recently visited the place about 5 years ago, but that feeling is gone now, unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteThought I would share this little bit with you because I found it interesting to read about the Lusi-Ghughuni in the above blog.
Enjoy your week's break and come back refreshed and with more for us to read. :-))
The brass utensils look beautiful. But is tough to keep them shining!
ReplyDeleteMy grandmother and people of her generation used to eat curd with rice flakes too. No eating cooked things from outside. Banana leaf was a must!
Enjoy your trip, Kavitha!
Your blog is a virtual gold mine. I love the similarities with the bengali culture. The puri (we call it luchi) and ghugni is the universal favourite in a bengali household as well.And so is doi-cheera during summers.
ReplyDeleteKavita.. :)
ReplyDeletefirst time here on your blog...loved your way of placing the tradition so beautifully...from here on you are blogrolled.. :)...
Hope to read more of your writings... :)
i'm not sure if my other comment processed. i hope you had a great weekend. cool post. i love trying new things. your post always makes me want to try the food you're talking about.
ReplyDeleteआसाम की समृद्ध सांस्कृतिक और भूगौलिक परम्पराओं को जानने को मिल रहा है आपकी सुन्दर लेखनी से. पोस्ट बहुत अच्छी है जैसा कि हमारा आसाम जैसा हमारा भारत देश .... अगली पोस्ट की प्रतीक्षा है
ReplyDeleteI mailed you before reading this post... so this means the phone call will have to wait a few more days. :-)
ReplyDeleteLoved the dishes and food you served. the utensils are unique.
Have a great trip.
I hope you are enjoying your week.
ReplyDeletebe back very soon :)
kayyyyyyyyy...nice to hear fm u...cheers..
ReplyDeletei like this post ....the way
ReplyDeletemera bhi ek dost hai jo Asaam ka hai...agar kabhi uske ghar jana hua...to Asaam ka kuchh dekh sakoon :)
It looks cool!!!
ReplyDeleteKavita,
ReplyDeletethis is my first visit to your lovely blog, which is rich with the colours and rituals of Assam. I came over from Priya's blog and I really enjoyed this post and how you have managed to keep traditions alive and flourishing. Bell metal utensils were used in my house when we were young, but have long since disppeared. Although, I , too have kept a set (plate-bowl-glass) to teach my daughters the old Bengali tradition of eating in 'kanshar thala bati gelas'.
The food is so delicious and yummy especially puri.My favourite dish.
ReplyDeleteLooks good
ReplyDelete