Naga cuisine comprises many interesting combinations, most of which even the most adventurous foodie amongst us may not have ever tried. Each tribe brings something unique to the Naga table.
Aos are known for their amrusu or amsu, a savoury congee-like porridge made of rice flour, pork, garlic, and ginger, served in leaf poultices with Raja chili chutney. The Yimkhiung (earlier called Yimchungers) are known for their varieties of kholar (beans). The Semas or Sümi make the best axone from fermented soya bean — it has such a malodorous temperament; the very word is derived from axo meaning ‘smell’ and ne or ‘strong’. They also make a spicy pork curry — Sema smoked pork samuthu, best eaten at Chanan Restaurant in Kohima near the Directorate of Tourism.
The Zeliangs are known for their benchai zauzang (chicken liver chutney), the perfect snack while consuming jongho (rice beer). We got a taste of it at Poilwa. Our guide HK Mbung rustled up Zeliang-style chicken curry after sacrificing it in dramatic fashion by strangling its neck and shoving a finger up its anus, choking off all air. Mbung is a champion of local Zeliang culture and organizes a Snail and Trout Festival at Poilwa to promote indigenous cuisine and games. Tanengkua or hamuk (snail) is a delicacy, though the star of the Zeliang kitchen is an ingredient that sounds like ‘Jackie Chan’! ‘Njegichang’ is fermented mustard leaf, added to Raja Mirchi to make a chutney called Njegichangtam.
Fermentation plays a key role in Naga cuisine but there’s a lot funkier stuff going on besides axone. Leaves of edible yams are yellowed and ground into a paste with ginger, chili, and salt. These are made into cakes and dried over a fire or under the sun, and used as a condiment called nuoshi or anushi, which is cooked with pork. At the peak of summer, tender bamboo shoots are grated, bottled, and allowed to ferment. After a few weeks, the fermented bamboo is sun-dried into bastenga, literally ‘sour bamboo’; the acerbic liquid released is stored separately and sold in plastic bottles. The bastenga water is a prized kitchen commodity and added to dishes.
As we travelled through each district, Peren, Phek, Kiphire, Tuensang to Mon, the cuisine evolved and every home we ate in, was a discovery. At Besampui Zangdi, our hostess Kideule made some stir-fried hornets, their larvae bursting with acrid juices. At Akhwego, Nienthso made some crunchy iri puka (silkworm larvae). Who thought one could eat the leaves of passion fruit until we tried pel patta at Reguri and again at Khong? In Mimi, the Chairman’s wife Tsisang stirred up delightful woody mushrooms, kholar (beans), flax seed chutney and raw leaves of lachuye or Indian pennywort (Centella asiatica). At Kiphire, we relished the smoked pork curry made by Thsarila’s mom at Tsatongse Memorial Guest House. At Akhen, Pastor Solomon would bless every meal before we dug into eat.
Each season offers unique culinary delights. Many varieties of wild berries can be found in May – June — the orange susselzieken, the red kopamiaken, shaped like the kopa or red Naga headgear, and the mukholiken or tamyungken, a white fruit whose outer skin is pared to eat the flesh inside — drinking water immediately after gives you a burst of sweetness. Bamboo shoots and a wide variety of edible mushrooms abound in the rains. If Medziphema is known for its sweet pineapples, Thanamir is renowned for its apples. At Khong village, we bumped into ‘Apple Father’ Youngphuikiung who narrated how he introduced apples at Thanamir.
Back in the ’90s, when he was a Village Guard, there was trouble with the Indian Army. He was on friendly terms with a Gorkha soldier. Being a good hunter, one day he hunted a wild boar in the jungle and gave him a chunk of meat. In exchange, the Gorkha gave him an apple. Youngphuikiung ate the apple but kept the seeds and planted them carefully at Thanamir. Little did he know that he would be altering the region’s geology and pomology forever! The Apple Festival in September is a good time to visit.
Now, there’s a breed of Naga food-preneurs who are showcasing Naga cuisine to the world. After hotel management from IIHM in Kolkata in 2005 and a stint in London, Chef Joel Basumatari returned to his roots to promote Naga cuisine with a contemporary, modern twist. Recently, he was ranked in Conde Nast’s Top 30 Chefs in India. He has been a judge for Naga Chef since its inception and set up India’s first slow food community, adopting Ghathashi, a village in Zunheboto district. Joel works with local agrarian communities to promote sustainable agriculture, vermicomposting, seed banks, cross pollination, permaculture, and organised an Earth Market in Dimapur. In addition to food festivals, he promotes local produce under his brand Saucy Joe’s — rock bee honey, napa (Naga basil), and black rice, besides BBQ mixes, spice blends, king chili sauce, smoked chilli sauce, sweet chili sauce, and Schezwan sauce.
Alemjungla Jamir runs the delightful Naga Bowl Express in Dimapur that’s been adjudged ‘The most admired traditional Naga restaurant in Nagaland’ at India’s Most Prominent Food & Hospitality Awards 2020. The eatery serves Naga thalis and dishes like pork bamboo shoot, smoked pork nuoshi (cooked with fermented yam leaves), smoked pork axone, pork with dry bamboo shoot, chicken amrusso, beef innards, and Perilla chicken. After graduating from IIHM Guwahati, Alemjungla worked with hotels like The Oberoi, ITC, and Hilton, hopped on board a cruise ship with a stint in Italy before returning to Nagaland where she became faculty-in-charge of Hotel Management at the Global Open University for 11 years. She chaired the Naga Chef Competition, held annually since 2013 during Hornbill Festival, and has judged several food competitions in Northeast India. With fresh ingredients available to her from the vegetable bazaar at the Supermarket, she started her restaurant in Dec 2018 with the aim to popularise Naga cuisine on the global food map.
Naga Bowl Bakery was launched this year as an extension of the restaurant. Pastry chef and co-owner Chef Loni Khing hails from Tseminyu district. After Hotel Management from The Global Open University, Nagaland, she joined the Hyatt Regency, Kolkata in 2011, worked at The Bombay Canteen (voted the best restaurant of India), Bombay Sweet Shop, and as Pastry Cook at the Dominique Ansel Bakery in New York. Loni loves to make customized desserts and bespoke cakes and returned to her roots, partnering with Alemjungla to bring global standards to the domestic confectionary and bakery scene in Nagaland, besides local delights like sticky rice cakes and muffins.
Textile specialist Sentila Yanger, who received a Padma Shri in 2009 for her contribution to Art, also does Naga pop-ups. As founding member of SFCN (Slow Food Community Nagaland), the primary objective was to prevent the disappearance of local food cultures and tradition. Colo Mero, who renovated and operates the British Bungalow in Chizami, also runs a restaurant in Dimapur promoting local cuisine. At The King Chili, you can try delicacies like Chizami Pork. For a typical Naga meal, drop by at any of the eateries at Eros Lane in Dimapur or on the Dimapur-Kohima highway. Many rice hotels are community or tribe specific like Ao, Angami, Lotha, or Sema and serve specials like Naga pork innards.
The Rumbling Spoons is a brand of local pickles run by Nitu Viluo. After an engineering degree from Hassan in 2014 and an IT job in Bengaluru, a health issue forced him to quit his job, recuperate at home, and eat healthy home-cooked food. Finding favour with his Naga pickles, Nitu launched The Rumbling Spoons in 2019, with a humble investment of Rs 500. He sourced the ingredients from Dimapur’s Supermarket; his sister couriered him packages. He hooked on to the network of Northeast stores, set up an online shopping site, added ‘accessible’ flavours like green chili oyster mushroom, Raja chili, and a milder Axone — the Netflix movie did help! Business has expanded to 21 varieties and over a hundred orders a month. He’s a one-man army in what is perceived to be a woman’s domain though making it to Naga Chef Top 4 at the Hornbill Festival finally won him some attention, acclaim, and respectability! A home chef, he’s now scaling up operations, trying to promote Naga cuisine and help local artisans.
Dimapur has the only railway station and airport in Nagaland, from where Kohima is 70km away.
Naga Bowl Express & Bakery
Super Market Lane, Opp Indian Post Office, Bank Colony, Dimapur
Phone: 9366846302
Timings: 11am – 8pm
The King Chili
Hibos Garden, Green Park Junction, 5th Mile, Dimapur
Phone: 7628813050
Timings: 10am – 8pm
Naga Morsel
Rice Hotel, Eros Lane, NST Colony, Dimapur
Phone: 03862-237204, 9856051549
Timings: 9am – 9pm
Saucy Joe’s
H No. 123, Block 1, Lane 3, Padumpukhuri, Dimapur
Phone: 7005657856, 9615851675
The Rumbling Spoons Naga Pickles
Dimapur/Bangalore
Phone: 9089166068
Email: therumblingspoons@gmail.com
Chanan Restaurant
Opp TT Stadium, Near Directorate of Tourism, Kohima
Phone: 9089355105, 7005796351 (Inoka)
For an offroad drive through Nagaland contact Wander Beyond Boundaries
Phone: 9717002058
www.wanderbeyondboundaries.com
Nagaland Offroad – Facebook/Instagram/Twitter: nagalandoffroad
TravelDine tracks the metamorphosis in the travel, hospitality and food & drink industries as we get ready to face a transformed world.
Copyright © 2022 Mediascope. All Right Reserved.
Copyright © 2022 Mediascope. All Right Reserved.