The Locavore at The Hills Festival, Umbir
In early November 2022, The Locavore team travelled to Shillong, Meghalaya, to participate in The Hills Festival, a two-day homegrown festival that celebrates the modern and traditional wealth of the state—from music and art to local cuisines. The Locavore, along with local chefs from the state and the festival organisers, set up the Forage Aisle—a multi-course culinary experience to spotlight Meghalaya’s indigenous cuisine using local, seasonal ingredients.
The festival was our first time collaborating with local chefs using locally available produce. Through this partnership, and with the knowledge of our peers from the area, we tried to reimagine these ingredients beyond how they are typically used, and presented creative dishes to eaters from the region that test their existing ideas of the culinary value of these foods. For us, these flavours were so fresh and exciting, and we wanted to share our enthusiasm.
On our first day in Shillong, the NESFAS (North East Slow Food & Agrobiodiversity Society) team accompanied us to Khweng, a village in Ri Bhoi district, to forage wild foods such as Kynbat niangming (a popular remedy for toothaches) and Ja iong (an ingredient that helps with diabetes). We also visited the Mei-Ramew Cafe—a cafe that serves food using only seasonal and locally available ingredients—and tried a delicious drink made out of roselle for the first time.
Traditional techniques of catching freshwater fish from the river involves using a sieve to navigate the mud out of the catch. Photo by Team Locavore.
First opened in 2013 by Dial Muktieh, the space that is now Mei-Ramew cafe used to be a food stall that sold local snacks. Photo by Zainab Kapadia.
Known for their use of traditional Meghalayan culinary techniques, the experience of eating at Mei-Ramew cafe included a spread of over ten dishes using locally sourced and foraged ingredients, and interacting with talented chefs—Artet Kharsati, Ben Wankhar, Daki Wanri, Fufu Pamei Mawroh, and Ahmedaki Laloo—and inspiring a gorgeous dinner menu. Each dish on the menu was a deliberate choice, representing strong personal and communal histories.
The food served in the fields of Lum’er Pyngngad carefully paired flavours and textures, and was an expression of our Meghalayan peers’ memories, identities, and cooking techniques. Photo by Hills Music Festival.
Over 80 guests were served on days filled with rain and good music. Photo by Anurag Banerjee, Hills Music Festival.
At the Forage Aisle at The Hills festival, local Meghalayan food was celebrated through a display of indigenous wild edibles, along with an inspired sit-down meal using these ingredients. In preparation for the dinners, the team cooked up a storm in Cafe Roku’s kitchen, where chefs and staff offered us their skills, cooking material, and space with immense generosity. In the heat of the kitchen, we realised that this event was one of the most challenging and fulfilling projects we had attempted. It had encouraged us to engage with food stuffs we were fairly unfamiliar with, and in the process, allowed us to forge relationships with like-minded people from the state, who share our passion for the special and intricate ways in which foods land up on our plates.
A little outside Shillong by Umiam Lake, the moment we were waiting for rolled around, bringing with it misty and rainy weather. The dinners at The Hills Festival, two seatings on each day of the festival, were accompanied with a forage isle provided by NESFAS, where attendees could touch, feel, and learn about the produce featured in the meal.
The menu included smoked pork in betel leaf with tree tomato salsa, duck nei-ïong, yam and chickpeas nei-ïong, beef meatballs with mustard leaves and star fruit glaze, buckwheat tungtap, and more. Photos by Anurag Banerjee, Hills Music Festival.
The dinner experience was unlike any other, with chefs from the team leaving their posts to interact with attendees and explain the process of making each dish, from idea, to wild food, to plate. In fact, the process—foraging to finish—not only brought the attendees closer to food from their land, but also built a sense of community and collaboration between the different teams. The food served in the fields of Lum’er Pyngngad carefully paired flavours and textures, and was an expression of our Meghalayan peers’ memories, identities, and cooking techniques.
Ahmedaki Laloo Birian, a chef who cooked at the event said, “Seeing how each of our indigenous ingredients was respected made me realise the importance and value of where we come from, and the need to celebrate them in our dishes and do justice.”
For the times when it rained too heavily, we convened in our tent and sang with the artists, true to the spirit of a music festival. As we left Shillong, we took with us the memory of people we cooked with, the memory of people we served, a repertoire of learnings from fellow chefs about their stories and culinary traditions, and a reinforcement in our belief to create a movement that highlights regional food, producers, creators, and recipes.
To read what other have had to say about this event, head to the following links:
3rd Hills Festival Meghalaya ends — The Sentinel
For and From the Hills — The Shillong Times
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