The `Artisanal Alchemy’ of Ladakhi cuisine

Srinagar: Nostalgia can be a byproduct of food cooked by our loved ones triggering several fond memories of home. Tapping on the same sentimental value and her Ladakhi heritage, Kunzes Angmo has set on a mission to revive the forgotten culinary culture of the cold desert and document its age-old recipes.

Growing up in Srinagar city, Kunzes Angmo, realized that her grandmother and mother had been the repository of their family culture and identity.  “Even though we were living away from our hometown, they continued to make traditional Ladakhi food. Meals like Skyu, rustic thumbprint pasta with root vegetables and tomato would often be accompanied by several heart-warming stories from the moonland,” Angmo recalled.

In the nineties, Angmo’s life, however, took a strange turn and the cheerful days of family meals came to a grinding halt.  “I got enrolled in a boarding school at Dalhousie. I always missed coming back home to the food cooked by my mother and grandma. The yearnings never eased,” she recalled.

In the following years, she finished her Bachelor’s in political science from Delhi University and her Masters in public administration from Jamia Millia University. It was only after her marriage that she moved to Ladakh.

“After coming here, I became more inquisitive about the nuances of the food culture. There are so many misconceptions about our food.  Our identity in terms of food is only confined to momos and thukpas. In reality, momos are Tibetan in origin. People weren’t cooking momos at home before the 1970s. There were no steamers except in a few families. And thukpa is as generic a word as dal,” Angmo said

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It is the very bastardization of Ladakhi food and culture that led Angmo to set up `Artisanal Alchemy’– a series of curated experiential Ladakhi lunches with a narrative that foregrounds Ladakhi food history, culture, and identity in 2017. She serves curated meals every 10 days a month at Jade House and Stok Palace in Leh.

“Through these meals, I aim to educate the diners about indigenous ingredients from Ladakh, which don’t make it to the mainstream menus. Food can tell us a lot about a society in the past and the present, including what people lived on and how they managed to create a food supply, often in difficult circumstances.  In our case, Ladakhi food is a result of its history, its trade with Central Asia, its socio-religious-cultural exchanges with Tibet, and now the influences from the sub-continent,” she said

Besides, she explained that climatic conditions in this cold region have also played a role in shaping our food habits. “Given the sub-zero degree temperatures that dominate the region in winter, food preservation and fermentation are the two most important aspects of Ladakhi food. Both dairy and meat are sun-dried and vegetables and fruits are preserved in cellars,” Angmo added.

Some of the unique ingredients of Ladakhi dishes that Angmo has introduced to her diners include –Skotse. It is basically wild onion chives and commonly pounded roughly into small cakes/tikis and dried which is then used throughout the year to temper dishes.  “It gives garlic-like flavor. The curd-based dish `tangthur’ is commonly flavored with a tempering of skotse,” she said.

Angmo shared that the traditional Ladakhi meals also contain a lot of herbs like `tumburuk’ also known as Summer Savoury and `tsamik’,  `kororo’ known as Moldavian dragonhead (Dracocephalum Moldavica). It is more commonly used in Balti and the cuisine of the Sham region, both of which are at lower altitudes.

Similarly, there is an herb called Chin-Tse”, Chinese celery. “It’s more pungent and peppery than the common European celery. It’s considered the main herb used to flavor some thukpas and even mok-mok,” she added.

In addition to this, there is a special ingredient, `Thangnyer’, a yellow Himalayan chili or yellow Manali chili also called Pahadi peeli mirch in Hindi. “The traditional Ladakhi cuisine uses this yellow chili and not red chili powder to spice up the food.”

Angmo believes that we should embrace our heritage through our culture’s food. “But we should also become more informed about other cultures by trying their foods. It’s important to remember that each dish has a special place in the culture to which it belongs, and is special to those who prepare it. Food is a portal into the culture, and it should be treated as such,” she concluded with a smile.