Soidon
Fermented tender bamboo-shoot tips from Manipur, started with the sour liquid of an earlier batch and eaten in chutneys and curries.
Soibum
Soibum, sliced fermented bamboo shoots
Thin slices of juvenile bamboo shoots fermented for six to twelve months in Manipur, eaten as a sour side dish with rice.
Overview
Soibum is a Manipuri fermented bamboo-shoot food made from thin slices of young shoots. The 2020 survey separates it from Soidon, which is made from whole or cut shoot tips, and from Soijim, the sour liquid associated with Soidon. The three should not be merged.
Cooks use Soibum as a sour side dish with rice and as an ingredient in curries. The 2020 survey also records Thongba and Eronba uses.
Method and variants
The 2020 survey describes two arrangements. Khongkhang or Kwatha uses a lined, perforated, weighted bamboo basket, which lets liquid drain. Andro packs the slices compactly into a tightly covered earthen pot with no perforations. Both are held six to twelve months.
The 2009 account describes a covered-pot process with no starter added. The sources do not give ingredient masses, a salt ratio or a finished-product test.
Microbiology
Laboratory work on Soibum and related Manipur products reports lactic acid bacteria, sampled from products made in the region. A 2014 study characterised lactic acid bacteria from four Soibum samples obtained in Assam, and the 2010 starter-culture study identified the bacterial species linked to traditional bamboo-shoot starters in Manipur.
These results describe the sampled batches. They do not give a standard starter or a mechanism that applies to every household.
Sources for this section
History
The 2009 regional account names Meitei women as the main producers, with men supporting, and records market sale. The 2020 survey documents current production in Manipur, with named production arrangements and the Thongba and Eronba uses. Neither source establishes an origin date, and no source ties a batch to one shoot season. Manipur bamboo shoots are reported to grow from May to October, with species-specific periods.
Ingredients
Scaling: source batch only
Juvenile bamboo shootsPeeled and sliced thinly.
Amount not stated
Quantity not given in the sources.Method
Risks and precautions · Standard risk
Undefined endpoint over a long holding period
The sources describe the finished product by colour, aroma and sourness only. No source gives a measured acidity or pH limit for Soibum.
Hazard sourceUse only young shoots, sliced clean, and keep the vessel covered as the survey describes.
Control sourceThe sources give no validated safety limit or storage endpoint for Soibum. Do not treat smell, taste, appearance or elapsed time as proof that a batch is safe.
The 2009 account does not state whether a starter was added to the covered-pot method, so the process cannot be classed as spontaneous from that passage alone.
- Select young, tender bamboo shoots of a species the Manipur survey names, Dendrocalamus hamiltonii or Bambusa manipureana.
- Slice the shoots thinly.
- Ferment the slices in one of the two arrangements the 2020 survey describes. In the Khongkhang or Kwatha arrangement the slices go into a lined, perforated bamboo basket under weight, so liquid can drain. In the Andro arrangement the slices are packed compactly into a tightly covered, unperforated earthen pot.
- Hold the covered slices for about six to twelve months. The 2009 article gives three to twelve months in its prose and three months to one year in its flowchart; the 2020 survey reports six to twelve months for both forms.
- Use the finished product as a sour side dish with rice, or cook it in a curry.
Conditions
Fermentation180–365 days
Places
Manipur, India
Traditional preparation · Region evidenceState-level association from the 2020 survey and the 2009 regional account. Not an origin claim.
Related
More from Manipur
Hawaijar
A sticky fermented soybean food of Manipur, made by packing cooked soybeans in leaf-lined bamboo baskets and keeping them warm, related to but distinct from Bekang and Akhone.
Hentak
Manipuri fermented fish-and-aroid paste, formed into balls or kept in an earthen pot, used to season Manipuri dishes. Its method is documented in outline only.
Leirou
Leirou is fish smoked in a prepared kiln or room by processors around Loktak Lake in Manipur, India, a method the local survey keeps apart from open-flame ngaphak.
Ngaphak
Ngaphak is fish split, flattened and roasted and smoked over an open flame on a wire net or woven bamboo mesh, as practised by fish processors around Loktak Lake in Manipur, India.
Ngari
Ngari is a Manipuri fermented fish condiment made from small sun-dried fish, usually Puntius sophore, packed for fermentation. A biochemical study describes a salt-free method; it works as a condiment and ingredient rather than as a filtered sauce.
Soijim
The sour liquid that forms during Manipuri Soidon fermentation, kept to start the next batch and used to sour curries.
Related in the family
Anishi
Dried cakes of pounded taro leaves from the Ao Naga in Nagaland, yellowed in a bag, then dried by hot ash or sun and used to flavour meat dishes.
Aso takanazuke
Takana mustard greens from Aso in Kumamoto are salted and pressed into a fresh spring pickle, or aged into a sour furuzuke that is fried and mixed into takana rice.
Burong mustasa (Filipino fermented mustard greens)
Wilted flat mustard leaves ferment with rice water and salt as a Filipino appetizer and cooking ingredient.
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
Pit-fermented bamboo shoots from Arunachal Pradesh, cut smaller and sun-dried for five to ten days, used in curries.
Goyang
Goyang is a Sherpa fermented wild leafy food of the Darjeeling hills and Sikkim. Rainy-season magane-saag leaves are packed in a bamboo basket, held at room temperature for about a month, then eaten fresh or dried and used in soup.
Hirring
Upper tender bamboo-shoot tips, split or flattened, pit-fermented one to three months in Arunachal Pradesh and eaten in curries.
Hogweed barszcz
The original Polish barszcz: young hogweed leaves soured in warm water for a few days, then boiled into soup with egg, butter, cream or millet. Recorded from 1595, with warnings about the sap and lookalikes.
Community
No community contributions have been published for this entry yet.
Share what you made
Sign in to contribute. Published comments and photos are free to read.
Sources
Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge 19(1):73–82; author-uploaded full text on ResearchGateResearch
Edible bamboo resources of Manipur: consumption pattern of young shoots, processing techniques and their commercial status in the local marketCited in: Overview; Method and variants
Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge 8(1):89–95 (2009); author-uploaded full text on ResearchGate; repository record NIScPR-CSIR handle 123456789/2978Research
Traditional knowledge of biopreservation of perishable vegetable and bamboo shoots in Northeast India as food resourcesCited in: Overview; Method and variants
Journal of Food Science and Technology 51(12):4143–4148; PMC full textResearch
Phenotypic identification and technological attributes of native lactic acid bacteria present in fermented bamboo shoot products from North-East IndiaCited in: Microbiology
PubMed record, International Journal of Food Microbiology 143(1–2):1–8; DOI 10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2010.07.008Research
Bacterial species associated with traditional starter cultures used for fermented bamboo shoot production in Manipur state of IndiaCited in: Microbiology
International Journal of Food Microbiology 121(1):35–40; DOI 10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2007.10.009Research
Phenotypic and genotypic identification of lactic acid bacteria isolated from ethnic fermented bamboo tender shoots of North East India