They have put together a team to research and interview elderly people of the community and document the traditional recipes. “Our aim is to revive and popularise the Badaga cuisine,” Deepa says. “When people moved out, they got accustomed to quick cooking and local foods so these traditional Badaga foods are being forgotten and the recipes are not being passed on to the next generation.Īlso Read: How 2 sisters are reviving cuisine of Bannuwal Hindus who migrated from Pakistan after Partition Work in the government as well as private sector jobs globally besides farming Traditionally, while the Kotas are the artisan tribe of the Nilgiris, Todas have been the pastoral community and Badagas are farmers of the hills. The walls of the restaurant have been hand painted, depicting the culture, food and life of Badagas. Ready last September followed by Nanga Hittu in February 2021. Till she decided to come back to India and launched filter coffee chain Kaapi “I am not a Badaga but Vignesh is and we both wanted to revive this unique culinary tradition because many people from this community have moved out and certain foods are no more being cooked while others are prepared only once or twice a year,” says Deepa, 39, founder of Nanga Hittu.Īlso Read: Tendu leaves cushion tribals from economic deprivation during COVID-19ĭigital transformation for one of the Big Four accounting firms in Singapore The world’s first Badaga restaurant Nanga Hittu (meaning ‘our food’) inĬoimbatore, about 500 km from Tamil Nadu’s capital Chennai. Tribal food of Badagas, friends Deepa Sudhakar and Vignesh Chandran have set up Their culture is unique, much like their food, which is now being forgotten as Badagas are moving to other parts of the world and adapting to more convenient local cuisines.Īlso Read: Last Forest takes honey & beeswax products from Nilgiri forests to global markets Nanga Hittu founder Deepa Sudhakar (middle) and co-founder Vignesh Chandran (to her left) with other staff. The Badaga tribe continues to live in 400 villages ( hattis) in the Nilgiris, mostly on the summit of low hillocks with rows of thatched or tiled houses surrounded by their fields.
The distance has also moved him away from the Badaga cuisine.īadagas (also called Burghers or Vadugans) are the largest indigenous social group in the Nilgiris who migrated from the plains of Mysore to these hills over 350 years ago following political turmoil and oppression. Today, Sabbarish is settled in financial and technology hub Gurgaon, thousands of kilometres away from Ooty in the Nilgiris district where his Badaga roots lie.
The meal was filling, healthy and nutritious.Īlso Read: From ragi momos to snails, how tribal food is becoming the ambassador for Jharkhand’s indigenous cultureīut Sabbarish’s father moved to Chennai for work when he was just 10. On most days, balls made from this cooked flour, called ragi hittu, would be served for breakfast along with beans curry, seasonal greens or sandege (chutney-like gravy made using pepper, cumin and other spices). Once roasted, it would be cooled and then grounded in a beesa-gallu (grinding stone-mill) to get flour.
Growing up in a small village in Udhagamandalam (Ooty), Tamil Nadu, Sabbarish Gowder vividly remembers his grandmother dry roasting ragi (finger millet) in mud pot ( madake) over a wood-fired earthen stove ( ole).
0 kommentar(er)
