By Bhogtoram Mawroh
While returning to Meghalaya from a journey the first thing I do is look for a Kong shop where I can have food on the way home. Last December, while returning, my friend who would always pick me up from Guwahati took me to a Kong shop which I had frequented in the past. This shop is located just before the Umling toll gate when coming from Shillong and has been attracting a lot of customers. There were a couple of vehicles parked outside, with passengers eating inside the shop. We were worried that we wouldn’t get a seat. Fortunately, the ones who were eating left and we got a seat at the back of the room. I ordered rice, pork, tungtap and a cup of tea for myself, but I don’t exactly remember what my friend ordered. As we were eating, we saw the incumbent CEM of KHADC, Pyniaid Sing Syiem, entering the shop with his bodyguard. The bodyguard sat at the next table across from us while Pyniaid Syiem sat at the front. He seemed to know the people in the shop and they greeted each other while he ordered food for himself and his entourage. My friend told me that the Kong Shop is quite famous and gets a lot of customers, many of whom are well-known personalities. The food served was not exotic or unique but it had one quality which is the most defining feature of a Kong shop, clean, home cooked food with an amicable ambience. This is what I always miss when I am out of Meghalaya and something I look forward to first thing when I return.
Kong shops are local food establishments that are a common sight across the Khasi landscape. Whether you’re in Nongstoin, Nongpoh, or Jowai, you’ll find these shops in the marketplace or along major roads, serving food and tea to customers who visit them day and night. Once we have sampled their food we identify our favourites to which we would then religiously go. I have a few favourites of my own which I frequent all the time. In Nongpoh, my favorite spot is a shop that serves both Indian and Khasi food. I usually opt for the Khasi section, as I’ve found that Indian food tends to make me feel bloated. While I do enjoy Indian dishes from time to time, especially the mutton cooked with plenty of spices, the portion sizes are usually too large and the food too heavy, leaving me feeling uncomfortably full afterward. The Khasi plate is smaller and is just the right amount to satisfy my hunger, but not make me feel overly full. It is for this reason I am disappointed with some shops that are trying to serve Khasi food in a thali style and charging a higher price. I think we should stick to our sizes, which are more authentic and less obesity inducing. There are a couple of other places in Nongpoh where I go, but in recent times, the one described above has become my favourite.
The Kong shop in Umsning is another one which I frequent while I am cycling or going down to Nongpoh or nearby villages. This shop is quite famous and runs out of food by late afternoon. I realised that a month ago when I went with some friends to have lunch there and found that it was already closed for the day. The specialty of this shop is that it has a vast variety of dishes, which include both vegetarian and non-vegetarian options. I especially like the pashor (mashed banana flower) and the fact that they give you local greens. The practise of giving local greens, like salad, jaymyrdoh, khliangsyiar along with the main course is becoming a trend in many places, and it’s a very welcome one. People in the rural areas have knowledge about dozens of wild vegetables many of whom have the prefix-ja (meaning food) which distinguishes them from non-edible ones. Some examples are jamyrdoh, jatria, jaraian, jail, jajew, jabuit, jasim and so many others. Initially derided as the poor man’s food, these wild vegetables are not only readily available from the local landscape but are very rich in micro-nutrients, like iron, which is very essential for combating anaemia. The declining consumption of these wild edibles along with increasing dependence on market food, which includes highly processed food, and those grown with agro-chemicals, creates high health risk as evidenced by the increase in lifestyle diseases like diabetes, obesity, hypertension, etc. There is a need to make wild vegetables more mainstream, and the growing trend of serving wild vegetables along with the main course is a welcome change.
In Shillong there are a few Kong shops I frequent a lot. I am a regular at a particular shop along the Laitumkhrah main road. The food is fresh and quite affordable if you know what you want. There are days when I want to save some money. So I would order jadoh, dohjem (pork cooked with sesame seed), and tungtap. Initially, it cost me 50 rupees, but the price has now increased by 10 rupees. The other option is rice, dohkhleh (boiled diced pork, pig’s brain mixed with finely chopped onions, green chillies, ginger and seasonings) and sohsaw khleh (slices of tomato). Sometimes I will ask for tungtap with it. A common feature of Khasi dishes is tungtap (fermented dry fish chutney), which is eaten with rice. Some prefer to scoop a little and eat it separately with rice, while I like to mix the tungtap with rice and eat them together.
The best tungtap is served in a Kong shop along the Umroi bypass. It’s a shop which is on the left side as you come from Shillong. The tungtap there is incredibly delicious and brings back memories of my childhood, when my mom would grind tungtap using a grinding stone. This method produces a very sweet fragrance. After grinding, she would take some rice, mix it with the leftover tungtap on the grindstone and give it to us. One could eat just that and feel their hunger satiated. The last time I got to taste such tungtap was in Mustoh, when we were staying at a friend’s house. Sadly, in Shillong, while the tungtap is delicious, that same fragrance is no longer found.
In Shillong there is another shop which I frequent sometimes which is managed by a Niam-tre family. A lot more options are available, particularly for those who are vegetarian, although still not enough. The lack of vegetarian options is one lacuna which our Kong shops suffer from. Whether it’s fried or mashed, potato is not a vegetable. It’s a carbohydrate rich food similar to rice, millet or wheat. Personally, I am a non-vegetarian, but I have felt a little disappointed that my vegetarian friends cannot taste foods grown and consumed by our community. Research by NESFAS (North East Society for Agroecology Support) found that villages in Meghalaya have an average of 202 food plants. While people harvest many of these plants from the wild, they also cultivate a significant number. It’s highly surprising that these food plants don’t appear in the Kong shops, which would really help the vegetarian customers, particularly Indian tourists from the mainland.
Just a couple of weeks ago when I was cycling to Sohiong, I stopped for some food at a Kong shop in Ladmawreng. An Indian tourist also entered the shop with some local friends. She asked for some vegetables but had to settle with roti instead. For me, it was a significant loss for the shop, as offering vegetarian options would have brought them new customers and additional income. I am not advocating for Indian vegetarian dishes but our own local simple dishes made with tyrso (mustard leaves), piskot (squash), kubi (cabbage), pathaw (pumpkin), phyrngop (common beans) etc, along with the wild vegetables as side dishes. We can use krai (millet), phandieng (tapioca), shriew (taro), and many other food plants to prepare dishes Indian tourists might enjoy. Even if some Indian tourists may not want to enjoy it, foreign tourists (with vegetarianism becoming an increasingly popular lifestyle) will definitely enjoy both the vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes.
Kong shops have been a lifesaver for me, especially when I am going for long rides. A year ago when I cycled to Jowai on a Sunday I was really worried that I would get no food. Luckily, there was a Kong shop in Jowai taxi stand where I could get some rice, meat and tungtap. At that moment, the dish tasted the best in the world.
Kong shops give me the taste of home food away from home and something I really miss whenever I am out of Meghalaya. I, however, also feel that improvements are possible, especially by offering more vegetarian options. I would always ask for pork, but a side vegetarian dish would not be a poor option. Things change with time, but I hope the Kong shops never lose what makes them so special—the experience of enjoying home-cooked food in a clean environment, surrounded by people from all walks of life. It embodies what our society should be based on – the principle of im lang, sah lang.
(The views expressed in the article are those of the author and do not reflect in any way his affiliation to any organisation or institution)