Thukpa/Vegetarian Noodle Soup

Arunachal Pradesh is in Northeastern part of India and its known for its tribal community. Obviously their food consists mainly of non vegetarian foods. However my today's post is a vegetable soup which is called Thukpa, actually Thukpa is a Tibetan noodle soup which have its origins in eastern part of Tibet . But this dish is quite popular in Nepal, Bhutan and in states like Sikkim, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh in Northeast India. Usually prepared with meats, you can still prepare this quite filling soup as vegetarian version just by skipping the meat part. Loaded with various vegetables and noodles, one can finish their lunch or dinner happily with a bowl of thukpa. And this post goes to this month's Shhh Cooking Secretly event started by me, which is now hosted by Mayuri Patel.

Tama Curry/Bamboo Shoot Curry - Sikkim Special

Sikkim, this state is located in Himalaya and its is bordered by Nepal in west,Bhutan in east and West Bengal in South.As per wiki,Sikkimese cuisine is one of the popular cuisines coming from North-East India. Sikkimese are traditionally rice eaters. Sikkim is the only state in India with an ethnic Nepali majority and for this reason, Nepalese cuisine is very popular in Sikkim.The staple food of the people of Sikkim is rice though they take maize as well. They have their own cuisine culture. Sikkhim food is said to be very delicious and it suits to their clime as well.Sikkhim cuisine is influenced by Chinese cuisine and the other North Indian states cuisines.Sikkhim people prepare different type of fern-based foods and they use fermented bamboo in their cooking too. The tomato achar of Sikkhim is well-known. They also take Momos and noodles in abundance.

Apart from momos, the other dishes from this Sikkimese cuisine is completely  unknown for me and while searching a different dish other than momos for this state, i got this Tama curry here.Do you know this Tama is a non-fermented bamboo shoots. Some varieties of bamboo shoots commonly grown in the Sikkim Himalayas are Dendrocalamus hamiltonii, Dendrocalamus sikkimensis and Bambusa tulda locally known as ‘choya bans’, ‘bhalu bans’ and ‘karati bans’, respectively are edible when young. These bamboo shoots are collected, defoliated and boiled in water with turmeric powder for 10-15 min to remove bitter taste of bamboo. Tama is ready for consumption. Tama is commonly sold in the local markets during the months of June to September when young bamboo shoots sprout.For making this bamboo shoot curry with canned bamboo shoots i picked from Chinese store.