How many of you recognise this plant? Those who frequent the hills, chances are they know this is the bicchu jari (rough translation: scorpion plant, I do not know its real name). It stings if you touch it. Now this time at Shringi, I realized that they make a soup out of it (a different variety from the one in the picture above) and no, the soup doesn’t sting. It was called Kungis soup in the menu of the Shringi Vatika and it tastes quite decent. This time around I tried two more Himachali dishes, Sidu and sweet rajma (now what is rajma called in English?) I am no foodie (ten years of hostel food killed all my taste buds) but I enjoyed all the three dishes mentioned here. If you get a chance, do try it.
PS. The full post on this trip is just not happening, give me some more time.
PPS. I might go to the place again to get my cell phone back sometime in March :)))))))))
I will surely bring back a picture of Sidu and then try to describe it.
Wow, I didn’t know about this Kungis soup. I just knew to avoid Bichoo Butti even if i were wearing full length pants. But I didn’t remember that all the time,long long back, and did entangle myself into it, almost once every month. Good part was, that normally there was a readily avaialbe antidote in the form of another green plant growing quite near to it. I remember rubbing the leaves over the itchy part and its green juice working like a charm. And a bigger Wow, for the March trip – I pray it happens :).
Mridula, trust me when I tell you that I MOST-embarrassingly-PAINFULLY came to know the name of this herb/stinger…The antidote, as mentioned by Rajeev, is our good old spinach’s distant cousin. And as the legend goes, ALWAYS grows WITHIN 3 feet of it!!!I am OUT of traveling as anyone might guess, going by my various unfinished projects and plans posted at various places on the internet.You JUST inspired me to finish what I started at my website http://www.geocities.com/rahul_does/1.html . Chuck the layout there at the home page; I shall write all with the photos.More soon.And shall explain the metrics and their effect later!Ra.
Rajma are called “kidney beans” in English. Or atleast that is what they are called in US.I make the disclaimer because I got to know new names for some well known veggies here – like brinjal is called eggplant in US and capsicum is called bell pepper.
Scorpion plant , what an apt name.. I remember with a wince how they would zap thru my pants and shirt in Kinnaur. Also called nettles, my mother makes a fine nettle soup – a dish also found in Scotland and Tibet.One wonders at the constant re-invention of food like this , at the motivation of trying out food that at first actually hurts you…
Mridula,RSS feed is working now in my yahoo page. I have added it via “Add RSS by URL” and used following URL there.http://www.gonomad.com/traveltalesfromindia/feed.xml
Rajeev, I never got entangled with it till date so didn’t know it could be that bad and that there was an antidote for it.Ra. thanks for letting me know about the three feet away antidote. I will surely look at the website.Pooja, I knew there was a name for rajma in English but it was just not surfacing. Vistet thanks a lot for stopping by and telling me that our Bichoo Butti is also the nettle and used as soup in other parts. I had no idea.Nilesh thanks for taking all the trouble. I wish I could make this RRS business simpler.
I can’t forget this bicchu jhari…when I was in I think 4th or 5th grade, I jumped in these bicchu jhari…..because I & my friend were in “Aage kuan peeche khai” (आगे कुआं पीछे खाई) situation….2 big dog were behind us, we didn’t have any choice. Just imagine what would be happened to us after that.
Tarun you are person number four to report this kind of an experience with Bichoo Jari. I can very well understand, if I had a choice between dogs and Bichoo jari, I too probaly opt for Bichoo jari, I am so scared of animals.
Hey Mridual,Your blog is very refreshing. I too want to travel. Have got so tied up with my work that I hardly get time. I loved the trips that I made with my Friends & BoyFriend. Your blog reminded me of that. Wondering how you manage it so beautifully. Great going!!!!!My e-mail id dhannya_sreekumar@rediffmail.com
Dhannya, thanks a lot for your kind words. We manage it with a lot of effort 🙂 Taking leaves do not come easy but when I am not traveling I dream of traveling 🙂 I hope you too will enjoy and travel a lot and then blog about it too one day.
Dear Mridula,We have stinging nettles that grow by the rivers and some are six feet high. I had to make my way through them with just a tee shirt and bathing suit. Ouch! wish I’d known about the antidote. Can you run a picture of that?steve h
Steve, you too! A majority here seems to have been stung! Unfortunately I came to know about the antidote only after reading the comments. I have till date not got entangled in Nettle. But this time when I go back, I will surely ask around and take a picture of the antidote too.
Mridula,Your posts about Himachali cuisine brought back thoughts I’d had last summer visiting Uttaranchal…I was walking along the mall road in Nainital..and I noticed..there was everything but local cuisine….Maybe I just needed to look at the right places…but I was a lil upset by the homogenization of culture-food-clothing…for sometime I hated globalization for slowly wiping off our unique identities…Oh well…
Very apt observation Akira and I agree with you.
Wow … nettle soup! I know it’s irrational, but I know it would get hard for me to try the stuff! So I’m glad you did it before me and have reported back. Next time in HP …And hostel food, well you should have come to BITS! We complained all the time, but it was really much better than the dreary cuisine served up at your IITs. No such soup, though.
Dilip, you have to try it, though I am not sure how widely available it is in Himachal, but if you ever find yourself near Shringi Vatika, do ask for it.When i was doing my undergrad and postgrad degrees in Rajasthan, I too thought I had seen the worst of mess food, but IITK gave it a whole new definition!