Shillong, Jan 30: Ri Bhoi District, popularly known as the ‘district favourable’, is well known for its indigenous and traditional cuisines for decades. To make it easier for tourists and locals alike to get a taste of the authentic traditional cuisines of the district, the Mei Ramew Café or the Mother Nature Café has opened up at Khweng Village in Bhoirymbong C&RD Block Ri Bhoi District, owned by Plantina Mujai.
Mei Ramew Café or the Mother Nature Café is an indigenous café that serves local food and encourages innovation in local recipes with maximum use of locally available ingredients. A Mei-Ramew Café is a novel and innovative method of bringing together the pleasures of taste alluded to local cuisine diversity, culture and identity. It is defined and well furnished by the traditional and indigenous foods items made through local vegetables.
The main objectives of the café are to encourage food entrepreneurship and support local economy, promote traditional food that is sourced from the local land and environment, and to promote personal hygiene and cleanliness for community wellbeing.
Plantina Mujai, the owner of the Mei Ramew Café, speaking to the media persons at the grand opening of her well-made Café, said she has been very fond of traditional cooking since her childhood in the midst 90s and through her journey, have innovated with the Mei Ramew café to serve food lovers with local recipes with locally available ingredients. She also praised the support and initiatives of the North East Slow Food and Agrobiodiversity Society (NESFAS), through which she has now extended her business through the newly inaugurated cafe at Khweng village.
“It was not an easy journey for me. I met different difficulties during strengthening this Mei Ramew café to introduce local made cuisines and to serve indigenous food to people from different parts of the state, even international people. But, through my dedication and the support from NESFAS, now I am able to have such a well-made and furnished café which I believe I can further enhance this business and also to support other local youth and farmers of my village Khweng,” Plantina said, adding that she still needs more attention and support from the state government.
Speaking to the media, NESFAS representative Khrawborlang Wahlang expressed happiness to witness the dedication of Plantina and to have established the Mei Ramew Café.
He also said that NESFAS is an organization with the objectives of preserving the tradition of the state of Meghalaya, specially to bring the pleasure of tasty, healthy, local foods that is inseparable from the responsibility towards the environment and the preservation of agrobiodiversity. It is working back-to-back towards enhancing these objectives by supporting local entrepreneurs in different part of the state.
