look ma, no fingers!

This issue has been a bone of contention between us for a long time. The subject is, of all things, iromba, or rather how i prepare it. Iromba, for the uninitiated, is one of the dishes close to a Manipuri heart. Prepared with ngari (fermented fish) and boiled veggies of your choice, it is healthy (no oil, baby!) and tasty (an acquired taste, in my case).

For reasons i don’t recall, i shunned this dish when i grew up. So i grew up as this strange being who refused to eat iromba. My family, used to my whims and fancies, let it go and did not try to convert me into an iromba-loving true blood Manipuri!

It was only after i left Imphal that i took to this dish. Though i still don’t count it as one of my favorites, i like this dish well enough to prepare it. This is where the story starts. Any Manipuri worth his ngari will tell you that iromba is a dish whose preparation requires the active participation of your fingers. But i beg to differ. Whenever i prepare iromba, i have steadfastly refused to use my fingers. i use a spoon, and sometimes a steel tumbler or pestle, to mash and mix the ingredients. He says it is not the right way to prepare it. His argument is that only by using my fingers i can really amalgamate all the ingredients and bring out the real taste. Eh? To me, it tastes just the same. Maybe better.

He is not the only one who considers this act of mine blasphemous. i have been told by almost everyone i know that this is not done. In keeping with my reputation as someone who would never toe the line, i persist in saving my fingers for better things. Like caressing!