Chunga Pura Pitha

For chunga pitha, rice (often with milk, sugar or coconut) is stuffed into hollow tubes of dholu, a thin, oily bamboo that lets the rice cook through before the tube chars. The tubes are roasted slowly over straw fires on winter nights, then split open to reveal a long white roll that is sliced and eaten with fish or meat curry, or with spiced dried fish. It belongs to the hill areas of Barlekha, Juri, Rajnagar and Kamalganj, but dholu bamboo has become rare, so the pitha is now mostly made at home for guests around Poush Sankranti.

• #pitha
• #bamboo
• #winter