My love story of Ghongee around Bhumahi and Jargaha River

My story of Ghongee is not a story of Ghongee,it is the story of culture I try to know around in my school days,when your friends around invite at your home,near riverside of Jargaha areas and narrates the ways of catching ghongee using nets and collecting in sarees and prepare as dish.The local taste  varies the artificial one ,says the aunt near you showing the values of the food for family members.

These small snail like creatures are easily found in the paddy field.Ghonghi is the local name for paddy field snail in tarai madhesi community of Nepal.To some people it might look dirty and unattractive but for many madheshi community Ghonghi has been a food source since very long time. Ghonghi cantain very high percent of protein (50-70)% minerals and almost all amino acid. It is served with rice in the food.

This dish is similar to french escargot, of course escargot properly cooked in an attractive way. France is also the major importer of fresh water snail from different part of world along with Africa. It is genearly reared in commerial scale in many African countries. The idigenous paddy snail are commonly collected from paddy field or sometimes from ponds as well but paddy field snail are more preferred. The cooking style is sightly different in different communities. Some communities wash them thoroughly and cook them boiling in spicy soup. The cooked part is then sucked from the hard shell. While in some, the shell is crushed with stones and the meat portion is washed many times with water. The flesh part is then cooked in similar fashion as with meat. but the taste is best when it is made hard boiled in spicy soup.

There is maghi festival and we will have the proper knowledge of this cuisine there ,I just remember my neighborr aunt describing all the facts and showing me the informations she had in written form as she collected with her small daughter ,I just told her I am a foodie by birth and when you prepared the cuisine using firewood at home collecting the Ghongee,my desire of having fish is essential now too because ghongee and fish are partners enjoying the water together what is the exact difference between them.She started giving the exact defination of this tharu cuisine and I lazybone with the cup of tea started watching TV lying on bed.