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Editor's Pick, Food

Khedzii Kohru: Nourishing Memories in Every Bite

 / 9 August 2024

Photo Credit : ILMN | Akklo (I Love Mao Nagas) Insta account.

Every person has their own form of enjoyment when it comes to food. Overall food plays a major role in our life, almost as an identity. The one thing that keeps people connected all around the world is food. That is the beauty food creates in and around us. Unique in its own ways, tasteful and enticing in every way.

Let us now talk about one particular dish, which is famous for the Mao tribe, from Manipur, India.

Khedzii Kohru

If dead is by the door and allows me to pick my last meal, definitely I will be choosing Khedzii kohru. Or in a scenario where you are allowed to only have one dish your entire life, Khedzii kohru will always be my pick.

Known for its innumerable ways to cook, the ingredient is different according to each individual making it. The plethora of creativity and possibility this dish holds is unimaginable. Yet the outcome of the taste is as imaging by all.

The history of this dish is engraved within the core folklore of the Mao tribe. A glimpse into the folklore goes as, Dziiliamosoro had 3 sons, spirit, tiger and human. As the mother grew old and weak in health, the three sons took turns to take care of their mother everyday. As they were farmers, if spirit and tiger were out in the field, human would take care of the mother, thus the cycle continued. But according to their name, when the spirit stayed home to take care of the mother, the mother would catch fever, and will be weak in spirit, when the tiger stayed back to take care of the mother, the entire day, the tiger awaits for the mother to pass, so he can devour the flesh of his mother claiming which part of her body he would devour first. It is only when the human stayed home, the mother was completely cared for and was at ease. With her health deterioration the mother’s only wish was to pass on to the next world whilst her human son took care of her. So she insisted her human son to end her life, and as an obedient son, he went in search of herbs that will end his mother’s life. In the mist of his search, the human son discovers the king chilly, which he took and cook up hot soup for his mother, hoping the heartburn will fulfill his mothers wish. But instead, with the hot soup the mother was rejuvenated and her fever was cured..

With that story in mind, even to this day, if someone had fever, or had motion sickness, Khedzii kohru is the first thing they crave for, or is recommended. That is the beauty of this dish, tasty and medicinal to an extent.

This dish is also remembered as a boon, for all the rough times when you had nothing. A mother being a cultivator had to plough the field for rice as well as vegetables to sustain the family. But since she had plenty of mouth to feed, that year she focused solely on her rice paddy field and did not pay much attention to her vegetables. By the time harvest came along, the mother was able to cultivate enough rice to sustain her family for the year, but her vegetable garden did not provide enough harvest to last for the whole year, thus as the year slowly came to an end, having nothing to cook for her family, she goes out to the surrounding field to find anything to cook for her children. But due to dry weather there were no vegetables for her to gather, so instead she gathered all the small herbs she could accumulate and cooked the dish for her children. Everyday she follows the same routine, and every day she finds different herbs to be the ingredient for her khedzii kohru. This not only feeds her children, but provides a sense of happiness to the children for all the new ingredients they discovered every meal. The family was not only fed but the children never got to know of their shortcomings. That is the beauty of the dish.

In times of war, since Mao forefathers were head-hunters, they were constantly at war with their neighbouring villages to stand their ground, thus when you need to be on the move, there is no time for a sophisticated dish, there is no time to linger on what to cook, and how to cook it. There is never time to ponder on food, as every individual is solely focused on surviving, so when hunger strikes, khedzii kohru serves as the best solution , easy to cook, nutritious due to the plethora of ingredients in the pot, thus providing the most needed energy, in such a short time.

If you were ever to visit Mao people, you will notice how closely the dish is engraved into every memory and every fiber of each individual. If a group of friends are meeting after a considerable time, their picnic idea is to gather different ingredients from each individual and come together to cook it. If there was any social volunteering work done, the meal they share at the end is Khedzii kohru. On a lazy afternoon the dish is what lifts the spirit and turns the day around. Within the bustling village of Mao-Gate, along the national highway- NH2, there is a small stall that overlook the minute traffic within the highway, a place where people stop by to enjoy a quick meal of Khedzii kohru. This place has stories to proclaim for all the ingredients that is put into the pot. People from all walks of life gather here to enjoy Khedzii kohru. If you walk in to this stall you will see farmers, travellers, businessmen, students, etc enjoying Khedzii kohru. Without their conscience mind realising that they are sharing food from the same pot. What a sight it is to see.

As a kid, when mom makes khedzii kohru, you know it’s a good day. Every one is together and is about to enjoy a toothsome branch. It’s the best feeling. There is no restriction to when it can be made, it can be a sunny afternoon, a rainy day or a cold winter afternoon, it just made sense.

The dish mostly consists of hot and spicy soup with a plethora of ingredients that fits the individual who was making it. The best memory of this dish is when we were out in the field, where we had to labour hard to toil the soil, and the time for lunch break comes, the excitement is more as the ingredients used to make the dish are freshly taken from the field we are at. After a hard day of toiling, your body is now ready to devour the food, and the dish is just taken down from the fire and is ready to be eaten. When exhausted you enjoy the food more, and because the dish especially fits the occasion the satisfaction it achieves is at its zenith.

Some memories tend to stick with us throughout our life as a cherished memory, so even now when the dish is made the enjoyment is double due to the memory. The joy of having the dish is a reminder of what we had and what we carry forward with us, the little piece of excitement that the child in you cherishes.

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