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Vegetables from Meghalaya, India

Lung-siej (Khasi fermented bamboo shoot)lung-siej

Young bamboo shoots of Dendrocalamus hamiltonii are cut small and sealed in a bamboo tube kept upside down near water for one to two months, or pressed under water in a glass bottle near the kitchen fire for about a month. The sour shoots are cooked as a curry with fish or meat.

Fully documentedVegetables2 months – 3 months

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedHousehold practice with no fixed amounts; Khasi women usually make it.
Young bamboo shoots, leaves removed, cut into small piecesDendrocalamus hamiltonii from the Meghalaya hills[behera2021]
Water, to cover (bottle method only)[behera2021]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 2 months – 3 months

Start
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What changes: Young bamboo shoots are stripped of their leaves and cut into small pieces

Step 1 of 5
Pick, strip and cut the young shoots
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactiplantibacillus
L. plantarum
Leuconostoc fallax
Lactobacillus brevis
Lactic acid bacteria

Output: small pieces of bamboo shoot.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Young bamboo shoots of Dendrocalamus hamiltonii are cut small and sealed in a bamboo tube kept upside down near water for one to two months, or pressed under water in a glass bottle near the kitchen fire for about a month. The sour shoots are cooked as a curry with fish or meat. Made in 5 steps over 2 months – 3 months. The longest step, seal in a bamboo tube and set it in water, takes 30 days – 2 months (Behera P 2021). Lactiplantibacillus, which prevailed in lung-seij (21.00–28.58 % across it and two other products); a L. plantarum genome was recovered from the lung-seij sample and Leuconostoc fallax, L. mesenteroides, Lactobacillus brevis, L. curvatus and Lactococcus lactis do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step30 days – 2 monthsReported[behera2021]Seal in a bamboo tube and set it in water

What makes this one different

The bamboo-tube method sets the sealed tube upside down near water for one to two months. Urban makers prefer glass bottles, which keep far longer.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Bamboo-tube lung-siejPreferred in villages; keeps only 1–2 months.
  • Glass-bottle lung-siejPreferred in towns; shoots under water near the kitchen fire for 1 month; keeps 10–12 months.

Safety

The bamboo tube must be sealed well. Water that seeps in turns the shoots black and unfit to eat. Shoots kept in a glass bottle keep for 10–12 months, but those from a bamboo tube only for 1–2 months (Behera 2021, quoting Tamang and Tamang 2009). Raw bamboo shoots contain cyanogenic glycosides that can release toxic hydrogen cyanide if not properly processed. Thorough washing, prolonged boiling, fermentation and sun-drying reduce it (Das and Tamang 2026, on another Northeast Indian fermented bamboo shoot). Behera 2021 says eating fermented bamboo shoots can still sometimes cause toxicity, and reports cyanide poisoning from breathing hydrogen cyanide gas given off by pickled shoots. No source we read measured cyanide in lung-siej, and the method described here names no boiling before fermentation.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

History
The sources we found do not record its history.
Temperature, salt and pH
The sources we found give no temperature, salt or pH figure for any of its steps.
  1. [behera2021] Behera P., Balaji S. 2021, Health benefits of fermented bamboo shoots, the twenty-first century green gold of Northeast India, Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology 193(6):1800–1812 (review, citing Tamang and Tamang 2009)paper
  2. [das2026] Das R., Kumar R., Tamang B. 2026, Microbial community structure, functional potential, probiotic signatures, and MAG reconstruction of fermented bamboo shoots from Northeast India, FEMS Microbespaper
  3. [agrahar2006] Agrahar-Murugkar D., Subbulakshmi G. 2006, Preparation techniques and nutritive value of fermented foods from the Khasi tribes of Meghalaya, Ecology of Food and Nutrition 45(1):27–38 (abstract via Europe PMC)paper
  4. [das-tamang2026] Das R., Tamang B. 2026, Metagenomic insights reveal beta-glucosidase-producing lactic acid bacteria from Miyamikhri with taxiphyllin degradation potential, Scientific Reports 16:13697paper