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| Karpum Pegu of Rice Tales |
Originally from Majuli, Karpumpuli Pegu was born & brought up in Guwahati and later she worked as a flight attendant for a couple of airlines. She returned to Guwahati in 2015 and started her culinary journey. Karpum has been the 'food designer' for the recently released 'Aamis', a movie that primarily focuses on the insatiable desire of meat consumption. In July, 2018, she along with her partner Gautam Choudhury, started 'Rice Tales', a place which definitely feels like an Assamese ancestral home. Here's what Karpum has to share about her amazing restaurant.
Why a traditional restaurant?
After I came back to Guwahati in 2015, I did a stint with a burger café. While I was at it, I realised Assam and all of northeast region has got immense potential vegetation wise. Following that, I gradually started learning about the local vegetables & recipes and the varied range of dishes that has been there and so many more that we can do. Thus, my partner and I, went space hunting and, present to you, Rice Tales.A brief background of the restaurant.
It starts with the name. We had a couple of options but nothing fit like Rice Tales. Our whole idea was to build a place which felt like an assamese ancestral home. We have put lot of those elements. A meat shelf which was used in every household when there was no refrigerator. Hand painted walls when there was no paint brush but imprints of your hand & fingers swayed from one corner to another. Cane chairs, dim lights in earthen cups, window designs which takes you back in time. This was our vision and we are glad, we pulled it through.Signature dishes!
We specialise in all sorts of assamese/mising food.Pork with pumpkin
Pork with matimah (black split gram)
Pork with outenga (elephant apple)
Chicken with dhekia xaak (fiddlehead fern)
Chicken with pithaguri (rice flour)
Fish/chicken/pork steamed in banana leaf and ‘koupat’
Namsing which is a fermented fish paste, delicacy of the mising tribe.
Seasonal specialities like duck curry, duck dry fry, river crab chutney, silkworm fry etc are available too.
We also do a lot of chutneys and salads experiments and let the guests try out on special occasions.
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| Rice Tales - an ethnic restaurant in Guwahati |
What is the restaurant up to in the near future?
We want to establish Rice Tales as a restaurant representing sustainability. We want to grow most of our own vegetables like our younger days when everything was homegrown. Nowadays, we have facilities like hydroponics, aquaponics, perma-culture etc., where we don’t need much space to grow vegetables and the yield is quite high. Perfect for a city location. Furthermore, there are plans of expanding Rice Tales across India and God willing, international as well. That’s all of our goals for now.The key people behind Rice Tales.
Two Partners : Gautam Choudhury & Karpumpuli PeguGautam is originally from Mangaldoi, Assam, born and brought up in Shillong. After studying in Bangalore for a few years, he came and set up a software company in Guwahati. Following that, he realised his calling and he moved on to setting up his own bar & restaurant.
Karpumpuli is originally from Majuli, born and brought up in Guwahati. Halfway through her Bachelor’s degree, she went ahead and worked as a flight attendant for a couple of airlines. She started her culinary journey after returning to Guwahati in 2015.
Apart from the two of us, we have our family & friends who have supported us relentlessly. And off course, the pillars of our foundation, our staff. Pinku, Jiten, Bhaskar being the main ones, have been with us through and through.
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| Thalis and dishes at RiceTales Guwahati |
Location of RiceTales
