Trying out different kinds of food is undoubtedly one of the best parts of travelling. You get to discover delicacies that you probably never knew or even heard about. It can’t be denied that travelling for food is full of adventure, surprises and OMG moments. Besides the fun, you also get to learn as the cuisine of a particular place reflects a lot about the lifestyle, traditions and taste preferences of the inhabitants.
Food can be the soul of a place. It’s not just about visiting a random place, trying random food and taking pictures. It’s way beyond that. Hence, it’s important to give authentic information to someone who is visiting a place with an appetite for culinary knowledge.
Popular Indian food blogger of Finely Chopped fame, traveler and author of The Traveling Belly, Kalyan Karmakar recently shared a video narrating his experience of his maiden visit to Assam and how a culinary expert from the state played an integral role in giving him the actual flavor of the place.
With the commencement of the lockdown, Karmakar started a podcast series titled ‘Foodocracy India’ where he talks about different food joints, restaurants, cafes across the country. In one of the episodes he talked about his tour to Guwahati with local culinary expert Sisir Kumar. Sisir is a young social-media influencer who runs the popular and one of the largest online food community in the Northeast- Guwahati Foodie. The group has a whooping 1,20000 + members.
Kalayan Karmakar got introduced to Sisir while he came to Assam for the Manas Spring Festival in 2018. He was invited by Pushpanjali Das Dutta. Pushpanali along with Mitali G. Dutta gave the responsibility of touring Mr. Karmakar around to Sisir as he is very good at that. Sisir Kumar has been a culinary guide to many foreign tourists from different countries including Australia, Belgium, London, Russia and many more. Hence, they knew no one could have done the job of babysitting the guest better than him.
When you see a place with someone else’s it makes a lot of difference.
Kalyan Karmakar
So, when you want someone else to decide where to eat, you want a quick and confident reply. As highlighted by Kalyan Karmakar, this is one of the best traits about Sisir. In his words, Sisir has a very strong point of view about places where to eat and where not to and that’s the sort of person one would love to be accompanied with. Sisir has been in the food industry for about a decade and hence has an exceptionally clear idea about the food scenario in Guwahati. He is truly THE Guwahati Foodie.
Among the places where Sisir took the foodie guest to in his sojourn in Assam was Mishing Kitchen. As confessed by the blogger, it took him some moments to grasp that it’s not ‘Missing’ but ‘Mishing’ which is a tribe in Assam. Mr. Karmakar loved the Khorika Pork salad and Pork with O’ tenga (elephant apple) which was, of course, suggested by Sisir Kumar.
The guest then visited Majulir Asanj for dinner. There they had an Assamese Thali.
Before heading off to Manas, Sisir made him try the traditional Assamese ‘tekeli mukhot diya pitha‘ with tea. And he was indeed happy to have tried those. The rest of the day was all about the Manas Spring Festival. There the team had an amazing experience. But being a city-person, Mr. Karmakar wanted to explore the city more. Once again Sisir came to the rescue.
They drove back to the city from Manas and that’s when Mr. Karmakar had a craving for a snack. One of the popular street foods in Assam, especially Guwahati is Momo. These Tibetan delicacies sell like hotcakes in Guwahati. So, Sisir picked Chinese Hut as the momo destination for the guest. Chinese Hut has been a popular eatery especially among students because of its reasonable rates.
Entering Chinese Hut gave him a sense of being at home as it reminded him of Calcutta (Kolkata) in the 60’s and 80’s. It was about 6:30 PM in the evening and the restaurant was full of young dating pairs. Mr. Karmakar said that they he & Sisir were perhaps the only non-dating people there. They settled and the decision-maker Sisir placed the order for a plate each of steamed and fried momos. So, while waiting for the order Mr. Karmakar took some time to adsorb the place and too some pictures. He took a picture of his culinary expert companion Sisir Kumar as well. “I wonder why was he looking away. Probably, recalling his own dating days.”
When the wait was finally over and the food arrived, the very first bite of the momo left him in surprise. What surprised him were the meat chunks in the Momos. Usually momos fillings have minced meat. But in Guwahati, people like their meat in chunks rather minced in momos. The finesse and thin coating of the momos surprised Karmakar and the soup was like the cherry on the top. “It filled the remaining gaps in the tummies,” he said.
After the snack it was time for dinner. The next destination chosen by Sisir Kumar was Heritage Khorika which is owned by the renowned Chef from Assam Chef Atul Lahkar. He is the one of the very few people from the Northeast who have worked with Gordon Ramsay. Mr. Karmakar was happy with this choice as he felt the place to be homelike. There he a variety of dishes and what he liked most was salad that the Chef specially made from scratch. Once again, Sisir’s choice was justified.
Mr. Karmakar’s experience in Guwahati, proves that he did get a flavour of the city within a span of few days and credit goes to Mr. Guwahati Foodie. Once again ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’ was justified.
It is said that people will forget what you said, what you did but they’ll never forget how you made them feel. Perhaps, the Guwahati shown by Sisir will stay with Mr. Karmakar forever.
If you have a question about food in Guwahati, simply go to Guwahati Foodie!
