Agartala: Republic Day celebrations at Rashtrapati Bhavan put the northeast culinary heritage in focus, with traditional snacks and desserts featured at the President of India’s high tea.The spread included Tripura’s matabari peda and pati sapta pitha, Manipur’s black rice kheer, narikol laru, Assam’s til pitha and til laru and Arunachal Pradesh’s khapse.Matabari peda, a Geographical Indication-tagged sweet linked to Tripura’s Tripureswari Temple, was highlighted as a marker of the state’s heritage and artisanal tradition. Pati sapta pitha, a winter favourite in Tripura and Bengali-dominated regions, was served as a rice flour and semolina preparation stuffed with coconut and jaggery.Black rice kheer, made from iron-rich, gluten-free black rice, was presented as a festive staple in Manipur and Nagaland.Tripura CM Manik Saha said the inclusion of these dishes reflected NE’s cultural legacy and called it significant on “India’s most important constitutional day.”“This acknowledgment was widely appreciated as a progressive step in bringing NE’s indigenous food traditions into the national spotlight, highlighting the essence of unity in diversity symbolized by Republic Day,” Saha said.
