The Suru Outdoor Fest is an annual gathering of some of the best athletes from India and abroad in the fields of bouldering, sport climbing, high-lining, and longboarding. I set up an impromptu tent/ stall for the few weeks of the festival, selling Kargil-inspired foods as I see fit for athletes.
To keep the costs down, I decided to buy only locally sourced ingredients from the local market and prepare some condiments in advance, which would be tough to make whilst living in a tent, like Apricot Kernel butter, Salt Cured Egg Yolks and a zesty Seabuckthorn Jam from the campsite.
I procured local 4-ingredient mutton shorba from a shop owner in the
nearby village of Sankoo. I would reduce the
shorba to create an umami-rich sauce
for an open sandwich with local greens like
Haaq saag and a historical trade favourite,
Manali Chilli.
As a mountaineer myself, I had three agendas for the mountain athlete appropriate menu:
1) It must be affordable
2) It must be protein-rich (animal or vegan)
3) It should open a conversation about
Kargili foodways.
My humble setup created some die-hard loyalists by the end of the festival, and gave me a chance to garner interest in the food, culture, and people of Kargil.
People from the mainland of India are often wary of trying very new cuisines. My solution was to introduce new flavours in a familiar form.