Process of Tradtional Gorkha's Kinema making) at Mansarover Hous.
Gauging from the socio-cultural binocular the eating habits reflect socio-cultural behavior to the geography and landscape of region. What I observed that rice eating region right from Japan to Eastern Uttar Pradesh of India prefer to fermented food as well as other part of globe. Yogut, Kefir Sauskraint, kimchi,cortido, sourdough, kvass, pulque. Kaffir beer, miso, tepa, dosa, cheddar and stilon cheese, Surströmming, Kombucha Crème fraîche, fermented sausage, wine ete. are traditional fermented foods of the different regions of the globe. To indicate the Gorkha traditional fermented foods viz, we can enlisted sale roti, kenema, gundruk, sinaki, meso, different veg or non-veg pickles bhaisikzo masuko achar, kukharako masuko achar, sungurko khuttako achar ,various vegetables pickles like dalli khorasani ko achar, tamako achar, etc are the most preferred cosines in our gorkha home kichens.
My wife Puspa after dedicating 44 years of length of nursing service in rural area backed home in 2017 and started her passion for cooking and serving the traditional regional foods to the traveller guests who come to stay at our Mansarover Homestay. She is fond of making fermented wine of different fruites like guava, peach, pear, timbur, khankpa,guras,chingfing, ginger flavour wine as well as making kenema, gundruk, sinki, meso, chuk. Today I saw her making kenema , a soybean bio-product , which I brought from Kolakham busty of Kalimpong district which is situated in Neora valley wildlife sanctuary is famous for bhatmas dal (soybean) cultivation and sale it's product at Kalimpong Raja Drorjee Hat.. She clenched the bhatmas beans and soak it in fresh water at least a day for soften the hard shell of bean. Then she boiled the beans in high flame. After properly cooked the soybean she spreads over Kewarako pat (leaf) for getting mild room temperature. She adds some dry ashes (we call it phul kharani) and rapes it with cotton or woolen cloth and keep it wooden casket at least for week for proper fermentation, After a week, the mild ordure emits and greasy kenema finally ready for gorkha kichen. Kenema is very easy to prepare which has more nutritive value.
I would like to mention herewith that Japanese use to have Nattō (納豆), spelled as natto in standard English language use, is a traditional Japanese food made from whole soy-beans that have been fermented with Bacillus subtilis var.Why cannot we introduce this kenema as readymade breakfast, the healthy and protenious food?
Dr. Jyoti Prakash Rai is a scientist who got doctrate degree in this fermented food kinama from Japan University four decade ago and its gene is registered at Gene Bank Chandigarh, India. Kenema is the traditional mountain food of eastern himalaya region.
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