Leiki Chomu’s tinkly laugh peppers her speech as she talks excitedly to the room of diners, pausing to breathlessly admit her nervousness, prompting hoots of appreciation to continue. She thanks everyone for attending the five-course lunch that she and her three colleagues have hosted and cooked this winter afternoon at Sidecar in Delhi.
She also invites them to visit their restaurant, Damu’s Heritage Dine, set within a century-old Monpa traditional home in Arunachal Pradesh’s lush Chug Valley, for a more elaborate dining experience. The all-women team have travelled far—fourteen hours from their village to Guwahati, then a flight to Delhi — to offer a teaser of their menu featuring traditional specialities of the Monpas, an ethnic group in Tawang and West Kameng.
Perhaps the Phursing Gombu best represents Damu’s vision. A savoury ragi or corn flour dough, infused with yak butter and chunks of oleoresin (resin and essential oils), is shaped into a mini tart shell and roasted over charcoal until the resin melts into a dark pool in the centre. Only one man in the village is skilled at extracting this allergenic sap without breaking out in hives, says Leiki. “But once cooked, it is perfectly safe to eat,” she hurriedly clarifies.
“The resin also has medicinal properties and was traditionally used as a natural painkiller.” Served as an hors d’oeuvre in a nine-course meal, it introduces diners to the flavours of Chug Valley, where Damu’s sits amid paddy and corn fields, orange trees, and plum and cherry blossoms, all ringed by the Eastern Himalayas.
Damu’s was founded in 2024 to revive the agrarian Monpas’ fading food traditions and their resilient mud-and-stone architecture, both endangered by modern lifestyles. “These homes, built with locally sourced materials, have stood the test of time and are symbols of indigenous ingenuity and thoughtfulness, which unfortunately is now under threat from the rapid invasion of RCC homes,” says Nishant Sinha, Coordinator of Community-based tourism, WWF India. “With Damu’s, we hope that some dying culinary traditions of the Monpas, such as the Phurshing Gombu and their architecture, can both be revived.”
Part of WWF India’s cause to advance Community Conserved Areas (CCA), Damu’s is named after the Duhumbi (the Monpa dialect) word for “daughter”, a nod to the eight Monpa women who run this twelve-seater dining experience. The meal includes indigenous and seasonal produce — fruit and vegetables harvested just before the guests arrive, flours of millet, buckwheat, and corn, and red rice cultivated and pounded locally. “We are only able to take bookings a day prior so that the women can set aside time to collect the ingredients and plan their day,” says Sinha, highlighting how the women juggle this work with household responsibilities.
Running an elevated culinary offering was unfamiliar to the women. Hospitality, however, comes easily to them. At the Delhi pop-up, they greet guests warmly, stopping at each table to chat and describe the dishes in Hindi, gushing with pride. Damu’s traditional menu includes Shya Marku, a festive stew of yak meat cooked with fresh ginger and butter; tsa tsa thukpa, a hearty soup infused with the Chamelon plant root; and baksa marku, akin to sweetened pasta. Local ingredients also appear in contemporary avatars —orange millet cakes, buckwheat tacos with pulled mithun, and grilled eggplant with walnut chamin. Local spirits include mildly fizzy bangchang made from fermented grains, and heady rakshi with yak ghee.
In Delhi, beverages included the pleasantly buttery aara, a warm fermented corn- and millet-based drink; and Monpa-inspired cocktails: a clean and crisp Dangoma Highball with gin, dangoma (water celery), and lito (Asian pear) shrub, and a twist on the classic whisky sour using corn and millet ferment and Zanthoxylum pepper.
“We carried a lot of the ingredients from Chug Valley to Delhi, but because of baggage weight restrictions, we could not get everything. But otherwise, all we serve at Damu’s is grown locally, with no chemicals,” says head chef Rinchin Jomba. The plating is elegant, yet showcases the cuisine’s heartiness and artisanal essence – earthy reddish millet momo wrappings; thick, slightly uneven, buckwheat noodles; and a vibrant orange, carrot, and radish salad with a hefty kick of chilli oil.
There are challenges in translating a fine-dining concept to a community unfamiliar with urban restaurants. Professional consultants advised on décor and aesthetics, and Chef Farha Naaz helped curate the menu and taught fine-dining presentation.
Pop-ups like this one in Delhi, their first ever, provide exposure, allowing the team to learn professional kitchen skills, sample global cuisine up close, and understand diners’ expectations. “The goal of this trip was to improve their skills in providing a fine dining experience and show them what Damu’s patrons have seen in the worlds they come from,” says Sinha.
Damu’s has fed visitors from across India and countries including Mexico, Japan, and Malaysia. Language can be a barrier for the core group of non-Hindi speakers, a gap that young Leiki, the manager, helps fill.
The larger aim is for the community to see economic benefit in preserving heritage and to model a sustainable business model as an alternative to the prevalent “line hotels” (budget roadside eateries) in the state. The women manage the finances, deciding on how to split earnings, reinvest in the business and contribute to the village. Last year, they donated Rs 40,000.
The eight-course meal costs Rs 1,500 per person, bookings accepted 24 hours in advance via Instagram or phone. The daily wages for women in Chug are Rs. 500. “When five diners finish their meal, the ladies are left with a revenue of Rs 7500/-. The benchmark is first to be able to make minimum wages without doing back-breaking labour, and the second is to have consistency,” says Sinha. The model appears to work. Damu’s made Rs. 1,60,000 in May 2025, a typically leaner tourist period. Recognition has also come through the International Centre for Responsible Tourism ‘One to Watch for’ Award in 2024.
With no marketing budget, the team relies on word of mouth and social media. Sinha hopes the travel trade will help them reach culturally curious travellers. “The inability to take walk-in patrons can be a challenge, but we wish to cater to those who value such an elaborate and intricate experience, and we believe if the word reaches them through the right channels, a 24-hour advance booking is no hurdle in running this venture successfully,” says Sinha.
Banner image credit: Tashdique Ahmed
