Chef on the Road, Jokai

Our four-day trip to Jokai, a small town in Assam, included a traditional 35-dish breakfast, tours of Jokai’s oldest plantations, and many, many, cups of tea.
Photo by ChefTZac.

ChefTZac did his first Chef on the Road (COTR) trip in 2013. He travelled to Europe, and spent four months immersing himself in the food and landscape of different corners of France, Italy, and Spain. Since then he has conducted trips across 23 Indian states and three union territories, each an effort to understand the nuances of different Indian food more meaningfully.

 

Over the years, many have wanted to be a part of these trips, and in May 2023, we were finally able to make this happen. For the first COTR open to guests, we visited Jokai, a small town in Assam famous for its fragrant, delicious tea. Nobody knows Jokai, tea, and plantations better than our partner producer, Fearless Tea, with whom we collaborated to make this trip a reality. With their help, we were able to curate a thoughtful and immersive itinerary that allowed us to learn about this town, what it eats, and all that goes into producing tea more deeply. Through the course of four days, we saw for ourselves their commitment to bringing value to the multiple stakeholders in the region, from tea plantation workers to tea enjoyers, as we tasted our way through local delicacies and warm brews.

(L) Disha, Ankita, and Anuja enjoying their first breakfast in Assam—singhara and cha. Photo by Team Locavore. (R) A flower in the beautiful Fearless Tea gardens. Photo by Ashish Sharma.

The trip started with TL team members and our 12 guests landing at Dibrugarh airport bright and early, where we ate singhara and drank the first of many, many cups of tea. Soon after, we were on our way to the Fearless Tea bungalows, nestled in the heart of Jokai’s tea estates, our home for the next few days. At Fearless Tea’s bungalows, over more cups of kadak chai and hibiscus tea, our guests (strangers from different cities and of different ages) began to get to know each other—little did we know then that these conversations would last much longer than the duration of the trip.

 

As the evening rolled in, and light rain gave way to the last of the sunshine, we made our way to the gorgeous lawns of Fearless Tea’s abode, where ChefTZac introduced Chef on the Road and why it is so special to us at The Locavore. Aditya Shah of Fearless Tea also spoke about the mission behind the company—to grow one of India’s most cherished drinks with care for the land and people that make it. Mr. Pransu, professor of human resources at Dibrugarh University, too spoke about the history of tea in Assam.

 

In a conversation, Aditya shared, “This is the first time we are hosting people outside our immediate family and friends, and work partners in our gardens, and I’ve just realised how special that is. Watching all of you be here and engage with the space is making me approach Jokai with a new pair of eyes, and a renewed appreciation”. Fearless Tea’s speciality, they said, is orthodox tea, or tea that is made with freshly plucked leaves. Across all seven tea gardens that Fearless Tea looks after, more than 8 million kilograms of tea is grown and plucked in a year.

 

Guests and team members alike began to look at the cup in their hands differently. Although we knew that many different categories of tea exist (boiled milk tea, steeped green tea, Darjeeling flushes, and many more), we realised we had grossly underestimated the knowledge and history that informed the complex world of this drink. “A trip like this one gives us a chance to showcase our work and our lives to people outside the tea industry. And hopefully, as we continue to bring such experiences to people, maybe producers will also have a voice in the consumption of tea in the country, which is what we—and The Locavore—are trying to do”. The evening ended with the jhumur dance, a traditional dance form performed by tea tribes in Assam and neighbouring states, with ever-enthusiastic Locavores joining in, our beloved Locavore Shuffle, and a hearty, tasty Assamese dinner made by Mr. Shanku, his wife Mrs. Deepa, and Ms. Bharti.

The dinner on the first day included jholokia mankho (mutton cooked with black pepper), pani tenga (fermented mustard oil chutney), pumpkin tendril shaak, fried moaa maas cooked with bamboo shoot, and more. Photos by Zainab Kapadia.

After a jolpaan feast for breakfast on the second day, we headed to Tinsukia haat, a Sunday market where farmers from different parts of Assam and some districts of Arunachal Pradesh come to sell their produce. Locavores documented their findings from the haat in a ‘haat card’ and were encouraged to speak to vendors to learn about how certain local foods are grown, cooked, and spoken about. As we overheard these conversations, having been a part of them ourselves just the day before during our recce visit, a collective feeling of realisation enveloped us all—markets such as the Tinsukia haat are beneficial for both producers and consumers. For producers, they are important to securing fair prices for their produce. While for consumers, they offer transparency and freshness in what we eat. As physical marketplaces slowly become less central to how we consume food, these visits are an important reminder of what we lose if we let them become obsolete.

After the market visit, it was time to visit the place we had spent the last two days hearing about—a tea plantation. The TL team, the Fearless Tea team, and our Locavores arrived at Hatialli tea estate just in time to witness tea being plucked by hand by women estate workers. The Hatialli tea estate employs over 800 workers, a majority of whom are women. As the women swiftly plucked tea leaves from the bushes, while the rest of us struggled to cleanly pluck single leaves, we were made acutely aware of the labour, skill, and generations of knowledge that go into every cup of tea we drink. The afternoon wrapped up beautifully with a traditional Assamese meal hosted by Mr. Goswami, general manager of the Jokai Tea Company, where we drank Haaz beer from bamboo glasses.

(L) Mr. Shanku tells us about different local produce available at Tinsukia haat (R) The meal at Mr. Goswami’s home served in traditional Assamese serveware called baan baati and baan thaali. Photos by Team Locavore.

We brought the evening in with a traditional Bihu performance of dancing and singing at Panitola Sports Club, followed by a fun night full of cocktails and banter with our collaborators, Stranger & Sons, who transformed the club into a stunning pop-up bar. The highlight of the evening was a cocktail-making competition. And what would the winners receive? A lovely gift hamper made up of Stranger & Sons gins.

 

After a captivating cocktail-making workshop by Divyanshu Mishra, brand ambassador for Stranger & Sons, our COTRCrew broke into teams of three and began to get creative. The task was to make two cocktails—one shaken and one stirred—using a Stranger & Sons gin, a Fearless Tea blend, and a local ingredient sourced from Tinsukia haat earlier that day. The results were incredible.

 

The cutthroat—yet friendly—contest was followed by some much-needed cooldown time, with a limitless supply of gin cocktails from Stranger & Son’s bar menu, and a fresh and wholesome dinner by Chef Aikya Thoumoung.

 

One would think the last two days of eating would have kept us full, but our appetites were in full swing. We started the third day with a typical Assamese breakfast of luchi, aloo bhaja, aloo chop, and payesh, rounded off with some fresh fruit.

(L) The winners of the cocktail making competition! Photo by ChefTZac. (R) A colourful plate for our third breakfast. Photo by Team Locavore.

Aditya and Mr. George Ambooken then led a tea blending experience, where we learned the subtle differences between different tea varieties. Still energised from last night’s competition, Locavores worked on a new challenge—making their own tea blend, complete with a fitting name. As they worked, the room came alive with aromas from both blends: a smoky mix with holy basil, mint, and hojicha; and a deeply earthy mix made with three tea varieties, ginger, and holy basil. The experience was followed by another traditional Assamese lunch by Paul Chetia, owner of dhaba ‘Dhuwa Chang’ and a passionate aquafarmer, where each dish was unique and every ingredient shined.

Our last evening in Jokai was a special one, spent on a sunset cruise, the Kanchanjanga River cruise. All of us chatted, joked, and reminisced about the last few days together (already!). Now, you can’t end such a memorable trip without a token to remember it by, so out came the project Team Locavore had been working on—a special scrapbook for each attendee to document their experiences and journal cherished memories. The scrapbooks were personalised with names, polaroid pictures, doodles, and beautiful custom COTRJokai stickers. Team members and attendees alike, we had the best time filling out our books and writing notes for each other.

 

A few months after the trip, the group of attendees are still in touch, planning food adventures and get-togethers in their respective cities, with and without Team Locavore. Anuja, an artist and one of our co-travellers had documented the whole trip through doodles, which she transformed into a book.

The COTR scrapbook was personalised, with (very clever) custom stickers for each attendee to use as they liked. Photo by ChefTZac.

From the get-go, we at The Locavore have known that Chef on the Road is special to our hearts, and to others as well. But this trip was a learning in just how powerful it can be in its ability to open minds and foster community. And we know that we just have to do more.

At The Locavore, we love planning and executing events that highlight India’s diverse local foods, celebrating community, sustainability, and cultural heritage. Our events feature engaging workshops, discussions, immersive experiences and other formats that connect you to India’s rich food culture. Interested in collaborating or having us organise an event? Reach out at connect@thelocavore.in.