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It’ll be worth the wait for bamboo chicken
Bamboo chicken has become the hot favourite of tourists in Araku and Ananthagiri. Tourists are waiting to be served the “bonguloo chicken” in sal leaves. The ethnic method used in preparing the delicacy is a major attraction than the dish itself. The marinated chicken is stuffed carefully into chosen bamboo stems and is cooked on fire without using oil. It is a time consuming process.
Vizianagaram: Bamboo chicken has become the hot favourite of tourists in Araku and Ananthagiri. Tourists are waiting to be served the “bonguloo chicken” in sal leaves. The ethnic method used in preparing the delicacy is a major attraction than the dish itself. The marinated chicken is stuffed carefully into chosen bamboo stems and is cooked on fire without using oil. It is a time consuming process.
Started by a group of local women along the the ghat road between Anantagiri and Tyda, bamboo chicken has become popular among the passers-by. Now, it has grown into a business proposition with many jumping on to the bandwagon. Today the road between Arakuvalley and Chaparaigedda is dotted with bamboo chicken kiosks. In the peak tourist season from November to March, the customers have to order the chicken well ahead of four hours.
K Ramakrishna, a tourist who is waiting for his turn, said that he loves the tribal delicacy for its ethnic method of preparation. “The chicken was moist like in the dum-style of cooking,”she added. The dish became a must-taste item for the tourists in Vizag Agency. Besides from Vizag, tourists are coming from Telangana, Odisha, West Bengal and also Chhattisgarh.
With popularity growing, the cost of the bamboo chicken has gone up from a modest Rs 300 a kg to a whopping Rs 500 and Rs 600 a kg. The price of bamboo chicken, which was made with country chicken, is around 800 per kg. The country chicken trader, a local tribesman K Simhachalam said, “We never expected that our dish would become so popular among the tourists.”
“Most of them love the dish as it was all about the chicken and not the overpowering masala,” said V Rajanna, who prepares and sells the dish on the ghat road of Ananthagiri. “For us it’s now a major source of income round the year,” he added.
How it is prepared
Medium sized chicken pieces are seasoned with chilli powder, ginger paste and generous sprinkling of finely chopped green chillies before stuffing it into a bamboo stem. The open end of the bamboo is closed with sal leaves lightly and the piece is placed on firewood to cook it. The fat from the chicken is enough to cook it and the sap from the bamboo gives the salty taste.
