Tongba

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Tongba nights

................Tongba, or also known in other places as ‘Bamboo’

I discovered this local brew for the first time whilst on the Singalia treck.
One night I was invited to join our guide to congregate around their fire and join with them in a bit of a Tongba drinking ceremony.

Since then I developed a taste for this mildly alcoholic, special brew.

I found that it varies from place to place, subtle differences in taste and strength, so you build up your own personal liking to a particular variety, that becomes an interesting evening pastime, to seek out these seemingly secret drinking dens, taking you down secret allies and dark, backroom corners. I never found out why, but there seemed to be some sort of black market, taboo sort of feeling about it all with the locals, maybe a religious thing or just illegal?

Tongba is brewed from red millet grain, fermented with some sort of yeast, which I did manage to find in a local market, it looked like white chalk with a piece of fern in it, I did ask what this was and they said it was a secret ingredient, jungle magic, so with this you can brew up your own Tongba and dispell any unwanted demons at the same time.

To make it I believe the grain is put into a large container, boiling water is poured over, magic yeast is crushed and mixed in, then left for a few weeks to ferment.
When it is ready the grain is scooped up and served directly into a drinking vessel, traditionally a wooden container which has a lid, then boling water is poured to cover the grain, you then leave this for five minutes or so to let it all brew a little and then it is drunk through a straw made of thin bamboo.

It is hard to describe,a mildly alcoholic taste of sweetish grain like you had been too impatient to wait for it to finish fermenting properly, but I found it very refreshing after trecking, the alcohol relaxes the muscles and because you keep filling it up with hot water maybe three or four times you get hydrated well after a hard days walk. Well that’s my excuse. Its good, I even think it is actually good and healthy for you. I like it. I recommend it.

Be warned though it does creep up on you after three or four……or errr I lost count, I lost my keys and where the hell am I?

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Photos

warning....
..can cause moments of lack of control

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be warned can produce adverse side effects