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.
Hirring
Hiring · Hirring, pit-fermented bamboo-shoot tips
Upper tender bamboo-shoot tips, split or flattened, pit-fermented one to three months in Arunachal Pradesh and eaten in curries.
Overview
Hirring is a moist, pit-fermented bamboo-shoot product from Arunachal Pradesh. It uses the upper tender portion of the shoot, split or flattened, where Eup uses chopped shoots that are later dried.
The supplied record spells the name Hirring and hiring. The sources keep Hirring distinct from Eup and Ekung.
Method
The 2009 account removes the outer sheaths, splits the upper tender portion into two or three pieces or flattens the whole shoot, packs the pieces in leaf-lined bamboo baskets, and seals and weights them in a pit for one to three months. The sources say no salt is added in production.
Use
The account describes Hirring as a curry with vegetables, meat or fish. A later source calls it a side dish. These are use contexts, not recipes.
History
The 2009 account attributes the method to Apatani producers. A 2024 regional overview notes that the names vary but does not map Hirring forms by community. No dated origin is established.
Ingredients
Scaling: source batch only
Upper tender bamboo shootsOuter sheaths removed; the tender tip portion is split lengthwise into two or three pieces, or flattened whole. Species named: Dendrocalamus giganteus, Phyllostachys assamica and Bambusa tulda.
No weight is given.
Method
Risks and precautions · Elevated risk
Undefined endpoint and storage
The sources describe the method without a measured endpoint, and the shelf-life figure is a source report without conditions.
Hazard sourceKeep the shoots covered, sealed and weighted as the account describes. Do not rely on smell or appearance as a safety test.
Control sourceNo validated safety limit, endpoint or storage time is given for Hirring. The two-to-three-month shelf-life figure is not advice.
Hirring is a moist pit ferment. It is not the dried Eup product and should not be treated as one.
- Remove the outer sheaths from the shoots.
- Split the upper tender portion lengthwise into two or three pieces, or flatten whole shoots.
- Pack the pieces in a leaf-lined bamboo basket.
- Cover and seal the basket, weight it, and place it in a pit.
- Ferment for one to three months. The sources report that no salt is added in production.
Conditions
Fermentation30–90 days
Places
Arunachal Pradesh, India
Traditional preparation · Region evidenceThe 2009 account attributes the method to Apatani producers; market samples were sold under the name in Basar, Naharlagun and Ganga. These do not establish origin or exclusive distribution.
Related
More from Arunachal Pradesh
Eup
Pit-fermented bamboo shoots from Arunachal Pradesh, cut smaller and sun-dried for five to ten days, used in curries.
Apong
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Goyang
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Hogweed barszcz
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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
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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; Use
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 FunctionalityHeliyon 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