"I knew the food cultures of Ukhrul could find a place here"

At 10 am, 28-year-old Shirik Chingri opens his shop Indigenous Basket in Bengaluru’s Kalyan Nagar. By afternoon, he begins coordinating with customers on WhatsApp about newly arrived vegetables and smoked meat items from Imphal. He started the shop immediately after arriving in the city, supported by his brother Yuikan. Having never left Manipur before, in November 2022, Shirik moved to Bengaluru, driven by his passion for cooking. “I had never seen a city like this,” he says. “I knew the food cultures of Ukhrul could find a place here.”

While most of his family continue agricultural work in Ukhrul, Shirik was determined to bring his home cuisine somewhere new. “I think of it as a cultural bridge,” he says. “People in big cities want their own regional food items, not some (packaged version). When someone tastes what I make, I want them to feel where it comes from.” 

At the heart of Shirik’s business lies his mastery of pork sausage—a dish passed down to him by his mother. Unlike most other vendors selling ready-to-cook sausages, Chingri offers sausages made by hand, a laborious process involving seasoning the pork, stuffing the meat into casings, and smoking and drying the packed meat to develop its deeply savoury flavour and extend its shelf life. “I use a traditional spice blend—a king chilli chutney with salt—as my mother taught me, with freshly butchered pork from trusted shops nearby. Now we have cold storage and modern processing (which is) convenient, but they lack that personal, homemade touch.” 

Setting up in Kalyan Nagar was a deliberate choice. “This neighbourhood has people who are from Manipur and Nagaland, (but also) from different parts of India,” Shirik explains. He finds that such neighbourhoods are open to trying different types of food, beyond what is mainstream and popular. 

Since its opening, Indigenous Basket has gradually built a regular customer base: 30 to 60 people buy sausages daily. Every evening, customers line up for freshly cooked sausages, while others take packets of six home, priced at ₹120, to fry themselves. For Shirik, running the shop, preparing sausages, tending to customers alone is trying; but this work sustains him.