Manipuri cuisine

Manipur is one of the eight northeastern states of India also called as ‘the jewel city’. It is famous for so many things in India and one of them is the delicious culinary delights of Manipur. Manipuri cuisine predominantly consists of food eaten by the Meitei’s community which forms the majority of population of Manipur.

The staple food of Manipur is rice like other northeastern states of India and the side dishes of vegetables, meat and fish. Daily Manipuri food would have rice with a gravy based vegetable called ensaang, a dish of stir-fried vegetables called kanghou along with a hot spicy relish like chili paste morok metpa or boiled mashed potato with chilly and fermented fish called iromba. The essence of Manipuri food is the yummy fermented local fish called ngari, it is used to mainly for flavoring relishes and side dishes. A typical Manipuri thali consists of white rice, vegetable fry, meat gravy, chili paste or achar, dal and some other side dishes like papad, yogurt etc. In the Manipuri food raw turmeric, green garlic, onions, ginger garlic are used with mustard oil as cooking base.

A special food of Manipur bora is prepared by sun drying of lentil paste and is used to make curries. Food of Manipur consists of one or the other item of fish dish either as ngaari, roasted or fried. These fishes are sourced from freshwater bodies in Manipur.

Different ethnic groups and communities in Manipur have many unique food items to be placed on the table. The Tangkhul community has more emphasis on organic ingredients in their food. The locals of Manipur eat many organic wild edibles and these items are something everybody must try. Apart from fish Manipuri eat a lot of pork and chicken and also uses Manipuri Naga King Chilly in most of their dishes.

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