Purple Bites

- Chitra Balasubramaniam

POTATO IS perhaps the world’s favourite vegetable. Prepared and consumed in numerous ways, it is a tuber one can never get tired of eating. Each culture has its own special way of preparing it. So how different can a potato be? A lot, if one were to probe its rich diversity. There is this small almond-shaped potato found in Assam. This little-known potato goes by a lot of names—asomiya alu, guti alu and badam alu. What is surprising is that though it is eaten with gusto, there is little scientific information about it. These extremely tiny potatoes are slightly purplish.

My tryst with these potatoes started at the Northeast festival held at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts in New Delhi. A man cooking at the Assam stall was busy slitting these potatoes into two. Intrigued, I asked him about it and immediately he launched into a narrative saying they are guti alu or chottu alu from Assam. It is deep fried in oil, eaten with the skin and is extremely delicious. I was not so sure of how potatoes cooked in oil with their skins would taste. It meant consuming too much oil. He asked me to come later saying he would make a bhaji in the evening.

But I could not meet him. Efforts to trace the man or the agency which had organised his trip from Assam proved futile. Everyone promised, but nothing materialised. Finally, Paparee Bezbaruah, who runs Jakoi, the Assamese restaurant at Assam Bhawan, New Delhi, obliged, and I was able to buy a packet she sent through someone coming to Delhi.