Shillong, March 19: a Cooks’ alliance workshop was held in NESFAS office whereby Smti Anita Roy, Board Member NESFAS and the local cooks of Khweng and Nongtraw community shared cooking techniques which strongly compliments the relationship between traditional food systems and nutrition. The workshop aimed at motivating the community to focus on vegetables as an important food source, in this case to also encourage the use of abundant wild edible plants found in their village. The workshop also shared the importance of different food consumption for a healthy diet, which can also be achieved through recipe fusion and flavour innovations. The Cooks Alliance consists of a network of cooks and chefs who value the potential of traditional ingredients and are involved in the promotion of innovative local cuisines.
Smti Anita Roy demonstrated basic yet nutritional cooking techniques to the local cooks who are owners of Mei Ramew Cafés and cooks of ICDS Centres from Khweng and Nongtraw community. The participants also shared their cooking techniques, which included some of their traditional food recipe used frequently in their community.
Among the participants were Kong Platina Mujai, the owner of Mei Ramew café at Khweng, Kong Dial Muksor, the owner of a local food stall in Khweng that hopes to become a Mei Ramew café one day, Kong Pliemon Barim, cook at ICDS Khweng, Kong Tharaina Riahtam, cook at the Midday meal program Nongtraw and Kong Barilin Ranee, a passionate a youth working for the promotion of local foods of Nongtraw.
Cooks at ICDS centres have a major role because through the mid-day meal programme, they are the ones who select food items given to the children given in a school, appropriate food items should be well distributed to the children to ensure good results in nutrition and also by encouraging children to consume important food source such as vegetables can determine their food choice.
“Our region is blessed with rich biodiversity, it is necessary that the community acknowledges ways to make use of the available food resources around them, like wild edibles or produce from their kitchen garden, rather than depending from the nearby markets” shared Pius Ranee, Associate, NESFAS.
