Eup
Pit-fermented bamboo shoots from Arunachal Pradesh, cut smaller and sun-dried for five to ten days, used in curries.
Ekung
Ekung, pit-fermented bamboo shoots
Finely chopped young bamboo shoots packed in leaf-lined baskets, sealed in a forest pit and weighted for one to three months, from Arunachal Pradesh.
Overview
Ekung is a fermented bamboo-shoot food from Arunachal Pradesh. Its distinctive feature is the forest pit, in which a leaf-lined basket of chopped shoots is sealed and weighted for one to three months.
The 2009 account keeps Ekung separate from Eup, which is dried after a similar fermentation, and from Hirring, which uses split tips and no drying stage.
Pit and basket method
The account describes outer-sheath removal, very fine chopping of the edible parts, and packing into baskets lined and covered with leaves. The sealed basket goes into a forest pit near a water source and is weighted with stones to press and drain liquid.
Five bamboo taxa are named: Dendrocalamus hamiltonii, Bambusa balcooa, Dendrocalamus giganteus, Phyllostachys assamica and Bambusa tulda. The sources do not say which taxa were in a given batch.
Microbiology
A primary study of 44 bamboo-shoot product samples from Arunachal Pradesh, 16 of them labelled Ekung, recovered 43 lactic acid bacteria isolates from Ekung. The authors identify Lactobacillus plantarum, L. brevis, L. casei and Tetragenococcus halophilus among the Ekung-origin isolates.
A 2024 study sampled Ekung from markets in Basar, Naharlagun and Ganga for yeast and fungal analysis. Those are sampling sites, not origins.
Sources for this section
History
The 2009 account names Nyishing women as the main producers, with men supporting, and says Ekung is eaten raw or cooked with meat, fish and vegetables and sold in local markets. The sources do not date its origin.
Ingredients
Scaling: source batch only
Young bamboo shootsOuter sheaths removed, edible portions chopped very small. Species named in the 2009 account: Dendrocalamus hamiltonii, Bambusa balcooa, Dendrocalamus giganteus, Phyllostachys assamica and Bambusa tulda.
No weight is given.
Method
Risks and precautions · Elevated risk
Undefined endpoint and storage
The 2009 account describes the pit and basket method but gives no endpoint, storage limit or failure criteria for Ekung.
Hazard sourceKeep the shoots fully covered and weighted as the account describes, and do not rely on appearance or smell as a safety test.
Control sourceNo validated safety limit, endpoint or storage time is given for Ekung. Do not treat smell, taste or appearance as proof of safety.
The sources give no toxin-control step. Do not assume that fermenting or washing removes any natural hazard in bamboo shoots.
- Remove the outer sheaths from the young shoots and chop the edible portions very small.
- Line a bamboo basket with leaves, fill it with the chopped shoots and cover them with leaves.
- Seal the basket and place it in a forest pit, usually near water so the shoots can be washed.
- Weigh the basket with heavy stones so that it presses and drains liquid.
- Leave it for one to three months. The 2009 account says preparation runs from mid-April to early September, when young shoots are plentiful.
Conditions
Fermentation30–90 days
Places
Arunachal Pradesh, India
Traditional preparation · Region evidenceState-level association. The 2009 account names Nyishing producers; this does not establish origin or every community's practice.
Related
More from Arunachal Pradesh
Hirring
Upper tender bamboo-shoot tips, split or flattened, pit-fermented one to three months in Arunachal Pradesh and eaten in curries.
Apong
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Peruyaan
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Goyang
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Inziangsang
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Khorisa
Khorisa is an Assamese fermented bamboo-shoot food. This page records cultural and lab accounts, not a validated home method. FSANZ says shoots must be fully cooked before eating; it does not validate Khorisa or set its cooking time.
Lam phueak dong
Thai pickle of young taro leaf stalks, salted, kneaded and held in rice-washing water in an earthen jar at room temperature. JIRCAS records it as a home-level product with no validated endpoint.
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Sources
Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge 8(1), 89–95; full author-uploaded text on ResearchGateResearch
Traditional knowledge of biopreservation of perishable vegetable and bamboo shoots in Northeast India as food resourcesCited in: Overview; Pit and basket method
Food Biotechnology 23(2):133–147; institutional repository full textResearch
Lactic Acid Bacteria Isolated from Indigenous Fermented Bamboo Products of Arunachal Pradesh in India and Their FunctionalityCited in: Microbiology
Heliyon 10(20):e39500; PubMed Central full textResearch
Probiotic yeast characterization and fungal amplicon metagenomics analysis of fermented bamboo shoot products from Arunachal Pradesh, northeast IndiaCited in: Microbiology
Repository research inventoryResearch
Vegetable atlas source inventory, S12 row