Bite into history: Chug Valley’s lost flavours find new patrons in Delhi

Damu's Heritage Dine in Arunachal Pradesh revives traditional recipes, showcasing local flavors and culture through a unique dining experience.

At Damu’s Heritage Dine in Arunachal Pradesh’s Chug Valley, the culinary journey begins with a wisp of smoke and a whisper of forest.

The team was in Delhi on Wednesday, taking over a space at the University of Chicago Centre. (HT Photo)

Servers place before each guest a single Phursing Gombu, a tiny corn tart that looks almost modest until you realise it holds a secret: a dollop of resin from the Chinese lacquer tree, slow-roasted over charcoal in Yak ghee until it both earthy and rich. Hard to believe that in the Chug Valley, where it originated, the recipe had nearly slipped into oblivion.

“In the entire valley, there is only one man who knows how to make the resin from the tree extract, and he supplies it to us,” says 24-year-old Leike Chomu, one of the eight women who run the experience. Her pride is unmistakable — this little tart is the first thing guests taste, the first clue that the meal ahead is not just food, but memory being rescued bite by bite.

The team was in Delhi on Wednesday, taking over a space at the University of Chicago Centre to introduce the Capital to a cuisine that rarely travels outside Arunachal. Four of the women have come down for the week, cooking, explaining, and coaxing strangers into a world of flavours that once lived only in their valley.

Four of the women have come down for the week, cooking, explaining, and coaxing strangers into a world of flavours that once lived only in their valley. (HT Photo)

The experience itself was born out of worry, says Nishant Sinha, the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) Coordinator of community-based tourism in western Arunachal Pradesh, who had watched Chug Valley’s traditional architecture and rhythms erode in the years after the pandemic.

“I had visited the valley in 2019, and when I visited again after the pandemic, I found that a lot of unplanned urbanization had taken place, slowly taking the place of rural architecture. That is the reason why I wanted the experience to be held in a traditional Monpa house, so that it would draw attention to the way of life in the valley,” he says.

To rebuild culture, he started with food in 2024.

The first woman he approached was Rinchin Jonba (40), whose unused childhood home, over 300 years old, is where Damu’s now welcomes travellers.

For Rinchin, the greatest joy has been watching forgotten flavours return to daily life.

“When I was young, my parents used to make the Phursing Gombu. However, as I grew up, it was made less and less in the valley. After Damu’s started, other residents in the valley have started returning to these recipes as well,” she said.

The women’s menu is a quiet revolt against homogenisation. Under WWF’s guidance, they revisited ingredients that once shaped the valley’s palate — from wild herbs to grains that had nearly disappeared under the pressure of commercial farming. Millet, for instance, is having a renaissance thanks to Damu’s.

“Decades ago, millet farming was very popular in the region. I used to have food made of millet with my parents as a child, but it was slowly being replaced with other commercial crops. Now due to our popularity everyone is not only eating millet recipes again, but cultivating it too,” says Tsering Lamu (49), Rinchin’s sister.

They named the experience Damu, meaning “Daughter”, in tribute to the women who are reclaiming their heritage and serving it lovingly to strangers.

The ten-course menu is a stitched-together portrait of the valley, faithful in spirit, gently adapted to suit a more cosmopolitan palate. The starters come with a cinnamon tea infused with fruit, warm and perfumed. There are millet momos and buckwheat pancakes that feel both familiar and entirely new.

Only seven of the ten courses were served on Wednesday.

“You have to come to Arunachal to have the whole experience,” Leike laughs, half-teasing, half-inviting. And by the end of the session, the room is full of people plotting trips to the valley.

“There is an element of fun; sometimes when you think of engaging with something traditional, it seems daunting, which was not the case here. Food is about sharing, and having a conversation with the person who has cooked it for you, and I am happy that is possible in this experience,” says Soity Bannerjee, an attendee,