Sikkim Cuisine

A state which shares its borders with almost three countries has to be good for its cuisine, to satisfy them bellies of a wide confluence of people, visiting this hill station to spend some quality time.

Here is a list of authentic cuisine items special for their unique taste and flavor, try preparing any one of these dishes and comment about your recorded observations, and stand a chance to win an all-expense paid lunch buffet for you and your loved one.

1. Thupka

Fry chopped onions with garlic and green chilies, after which you add some minced meat and let the dish fry for around ten minutes, add salt as per specified requirements. Keep the dish aside for some time, and boil almost four liters of water, while you continuously keep dropping in the noodles, boil for two minutes, and stir the dish at continuous intervals.

Drain the noodles of its excessive water with the help of a sieve, and run cold water over the sieve, to prevent them noodles from sticking onto each other. Finally, squeeze out all the extra water from them noodles, while they are transferred into a serving bowl.

Pour the hot soup into a bowl with noodles. Put fried meat, onions, and green chilies, atop noodles soaked in hot soup.

2. Kinema curry 

First of all heat the oil in a frying pan, add chopped onions and fry them onion slices till they become tender, add tomatoes, turmeric powder, and fry the dish for around two minutes. While the Kinema is fried, you have to add salt as per taste, and sprinkle sliced green chilies atop the dish, and fry for three to five minutes. A little water is used to make a  thick curry, cook the curry for five to seven minutes.

Kinema curry is ready to be served with rice. Sun-dried kinema is sometimes mixed with leafy vegetables to make mixed curry as a side-dish.

3. Gundruk & Sinki

Gundruk and Sinki are traditionally fermented vegetables, prepared during winter when fresh perishable vegetables are in plenty. Gundruk is a fermented product made out of leafy vegetables such as rayo sag, mustard leaves, radish, and cauliflower. Sinki is prepared from radish tap root. The quality attributes to Gundruk and Sinki depends on the characteristic flavor. Gundruk and Sinki are sun dried after fermentation and stored while they are consumed. Due to a high content of organic acid and low pH value, these products can be preserved for over a year.  Gundruk and Sinki are good appetizers due to their high lactic acid content, developed during fermentation.

Sikkim Handicrafts

Sikkim is a place where the beauty of its arts and crafts is quite popular, while the rural artisans are handcrafting products at will to create a resplendent display of alluring ornaments, which are items basically used for decor and furnishing.

1. Thangka Art

Thangkas are famous for their promotion of creativity in the state of Sikkhim, typical thangkas are fairly small, with painted area ranging in between 20 to 50 centimeters, even giant festival thangkas are designed to be unrolled against a wall in the monastery for religious occasions. These paintings are wider than its length, may be sixty feet wide and twenty feet high. In Bhutan these are called thongdrels. They are larger than average thangkas that were designed for altars or display in temples.

Thangkas are painted on cotton or silk. The most common thangka painting is done on a loosely woven cotton produced in a width of 16 – 23 inches. While there quite a many variations, thangkas wider than 17 or 18 inches frequently need beams to support them. The paint consists of pigments mixed in a water-soluble medium made out of animal glue. Both mineral and organic pigments are used. The paint is directly applied as a warm liquid, mixed shortly before application.

Thangka art is often expressed with loads of symbols and allusions. The art of Thangka is explicitly religious; henceforward all symbols must be in perfect accordance with strict guidelines laid out in the Buddhist scriptures. The artist must be adequately trained in this craft, possessing a sufficient understanding of them religious scriptures, with a mythological know how of laying an accurate background to create the desired thangka.

2. Choktse Tables

High mountains and fascinating greenery. Sikkim is widely known for not only its breath taking beauty but for some extraordinary works of art and craft, like them tables called Choktse, Hand made papers, Woolen blankets, and traditional motifs.

Choktse, a foldable table from the region of gangtok, is one of them well-known products of Sikkim, attaining both national and international fame. Choktse tables are prepared in varying designs with unique motifs.

Choktses are small wooden tables which are very delicately painted and polished. The tables are both foldable and portable, made in different dimensions. They are Tibetan in origin, made from wood locally known as kath.

The various parts of these tables are first cut out from wood and then carved into them desired motifs. The pattern to be etched is transferred onto the wood, using a paper stencil. Holes are drilled using a drilling machine on the portions to be completely removed around the motif.

Using a set of tools, details of the form are carved out. The carved panel is fixed onto a choktse, otherwise painted and polished if it is to be sold as an individual piece. The choktse is rigorously treated for smoothness and other quality measures, coated with a primer and finally dried.

Buy any one of these traditional handicraft items, and comment below with a selfie, while you might stand a chance to win exciting offers.