ForkTales celebrates heirloom rice varieties

July 26, 2019Tanushree Bhowmik

Rice, especially our heirloom rice varieties, has been a passion for a long time now. The passion led to two and a half years of research on tracing the antiquity of rice through our Vedic era texts and folk lores; and following the work of a few rice conservationists who have been doing remarkable work with our farmers on reviving folk varieties. The likes of us who work on climate adaptation and public policy, know the importance of such work. And that was an added dimension to the interest in rice.

I was presenting an abstract of the research at the Tasting India Symposium, when it led to a discussion with the lovely Kaveri Ponappa, renowned author and expert in Kodava cuisine and a fellow rice enthusiast. The discussion was on the kind of rice dishes described in the texts and how they evolved through the centuries. Kaveri suggested that we design a pop-up around that and that is how this event on ‘Celebrating Rice’s came about.

The challenges were many. Most of the recipes we’re merely a few word descriptions, hence standardising was quite an effort. It required a lot of cross referencing. Thankfully, I realised a lot of them, especially the ones that are for medicinal uses, are still prescribed by Ayurvedic practitioner. So, I started working with the amazing Mr. Loganathan, or Logos, as he is fondly called. Logos is a thirtieth generation healer and has a doctorate in ethno-botany. He helped me work through some of the texts and reproduce the healing concoctions. He also helped me understand some of the qualities of the folk rice varieties.

Next was the task of sourcing rice varieties. Thankfully, I had started doing it since my visit to Bankura and Midnapore a few months back. The farmers and the Santhal women I met there were extremely knowledgeable and helpful. Slowly but steadily, we managed to collect around 30 varieties, each in consumable quantities!

Finally, it was the turn of designing the menu. I wanted to use as many rice varieties as possible, yet keep them all different. There was this question of how many rice dishes can you pack in a menu and get people to eat it without tiring the taste buds. I made a gamble and decided to use rice from drinks to desserts, and designed twelve courses. Each using a different variety, based on the nature of the rice, and traditional use.

Om decided to set up a small exhibition of rice varieties that we were using that evening, to take people through a rice appreciation. All that paid off because it is one of our dinners which generated the most interest and requests for a repeat.

The most interesting fall out of the event has been the realization of how strongly attached we are to our rice. We have had friends and acquaintances who have been sending us different varieties that they have grown up eating, or are prized in their regions. It is humbling.

I will leave you with the names of the varieties that we had used in the menu that evening – Njvara, Kabirajsal, Karpurkanti, Narasimha Jata, Bahurupi, Bhutmuri, Joha, Chak hao, Kattuyanam, Sitabhog, Ambe mohor and Sreeraga samba.