Odia food festival brings disappearing cuisine to the fore

Bhubaneswar: Many fading gems of traditional Odia cuisine have found a vibrant platform at the ongoing Odisha Food Festival here. Kai chutney (red ant chutney) is a hot favourite among people at this culinary carnival.This GI-tagged food product is made from red ants and their eggs collected from Similipal National Park. Tribals enter the forest early in the morning and collect the red ant eggs using age-old techniques. After washing them, the tribals sell them in the market, said Rojismita Barik, who is selling this chutney at the festival. Barik, who was brought up in Mayurbhanj district, said she learnt making ‘kai chutney’ from the ant gatherers. “We purchase the red ant eggs from the tribals and make the chutney out of it. Red ant egg production is very limited and is not found everywhere in the state. This is a very special item. I offer the culinary enthusiasts a taste of this chutney as many people don’t know about it,” she added.Swagatika Dhal, a homemaker from the city, said she never tasted an item like ‘kai chutney’ earlier. “Initially, it tastes sour and then it gives a unique experience to the taste buds. This is really delicious,” she added.Like ‘kai chutney’, other authentic Odia foods, including some forgotten foods, are attracting the crowd. These include ‘macha kanji’ (prepared from fermented rice water by adding some vegetables and fish), ‘chaupadi enduri’ (made from fermented batter of parboiled rice and de-husked black lentils), ‘macha haladipani’, ‘manda pitha’, ‘khaja pitha’, ‘arisha pitha’, ‘muga chandrakanti’, ‘chunchipatra pitha’, ‘ghee anna mansa’, ‘jholo roti’, ‘kakharu phula bara’, ‘mudhi mansa’, and ‘chakuli besara’.There are around 90 food stalls at the event, and many of them have brought these disappearing Odia foods. “I loved these foods a lot. Gen Z may find these disappearing foods unfamiliar, but they should know our culinary heritage,” said Kamini Patra, a food enthusiast.Sajjan Sharma, president of Biswa Odia Pariwar and organiser of the event, said the festival aims to showcase to the world the richness, variety, and cultural depth of Odisha’s culinary heritage. By reviving disappearing recipes and bringing them back to public taste, the event hopes to reconnect people — especially the younger generation — with the state’s vanishing food traditions, he added.