Ekung
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.
Eup
Eepe · Eup or eepe, dried fermented bamboo shoots
Pit-fermented bamboo shoots from Arunachal Pradesh, cut smaller and sun-dried for five to ten days, used in curries.
Overview
Eup is a dried bamboo-shoot product from Arunachal Pradesh. The 2009 account describes it as dry fermented bamboo tender shoots. It follows a pit fermentation like Ekung and adds a cutting and sun-drying stage.
Its name also appears as eepe in a supplied record and in a 2024 regional overview. The atlas keeps both spellings and does not assume a community-wide alias.
Method
The account peels and washes tender shoots, chops them small, packs them in a leaf-lined bamboo basket in a pit, and seals and weights it. The fermentation takes one to three months.
The pieces are then cut smaller and sun-dried for five to ten days until they turn from whitish to chocolate brown. The account gives no quantities, process temperature or validated home endpoint.
Use and microbiology
Cooks use Eup in curries with meat, fish or vegetables, and it is also eaten as a side dish with rice. Lactic acid bacteria were recovered from sampled Eup, but no starter is specified. A 2024 study also found yeast and fungi in market samples labelled Eup.
Sources for this section
History
The 2009 regional account associates Eup with Nyishing foods. A 2024 regional overview writes the name as 'eup or eepe' and groups it regionally without mapping the names by community. No origin date is established.
Ingredients
Scaling: source batch only
Young bamboo shootsOuter sheaths removed, peeled and washed, chopped small. Species named in the sources: Dendrocalamus hamiltonii, Bambusa balcooa, Dendrocalamus giganteus, Phyllostachys assamica and Bambusa tulda.
No weight is given.
Method
Risks and precautions · Elevated risk
Undefined drying endpoint and storage
The sources give colour change and sun drying as cues, not measured endpoints. One account reports up to two years of ambient storage without validated conditions.
Hazard sourceDry the pieces until the colour change is complete, and keep them in a dry place. The sources set no moisture limit.
Control sourceNo validated drying endpoint, moisture limit or storage time is given for Eup. The two-year storage period in one account is a source claim, not advice.
Do not treat colour, smell or taste as proof that the dried product is safe.
- Remove the outer sheaths of the young shoots, peel and wash them, and chop them small.
- Pack the pieces in a leaf-lined bamboo basket in a pit, cover and seal the basket, and weight it as for Ekung.
- Ferment for one to three months.
- Take the fermented pieces out, cut them smaller and spread them to dry in the sun for five to ten days, until the colour changes from whitish to chocolate brown.
Conditions
Fermentation30–90 days
Places
Arunachal Pradesh, India
Traditional preparation · Region evidenceThe 2009 account names Nyishing foods; market samples were labelled Eup in Basar, Naharlagun and Ganga. These do not establish origin or exclusive distribution.
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Community
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Sources
Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge 8(1), 89–95; Sikkim University / CSIR-NIScPRResearch
Traditional knowledge of biopreservation of perishable vegetable and bamboo shoots in Northeast India as food resourcesCited in: Overview; Method
Food Biotechnology 23(2), 133–147; Taylor & Francis; Sikkim Government College / Sikkim UniversityResearch
Lactic Acid Bacteria Isolated from Indigenous Fermented Bamboo Products of Arunachal Pradesh in India and Their FunctionalityCited in: Use and microbiology
Heliyon 10(20), e39500; Sikkim University / CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative MedicineResearch
Probiotic yeast characterization and fungal amplicon metagenomics analysis of fermented bamboo shoot products from Arunachal Pradesh, northeast IndiaCited in: Overview; Use and microbiology