Nagaland's Kitchen Green Park
From the green hills of Nagaland to the Green Park of Delhi, Nagaland’s Kitchen has made a momentous journey through the miles and opened its doors to the rest of the country. Nagaland has 30 tribes, each speaking a different language, and their cuisine, weaving, music, and war cries are equally varied. Nagaland cuisine integrates this diversity into a tasteful Thaali.
The walls are decorated with spears, headdresses and accessories made with shells and beads from the different tribes. Pictures on the walls give you a taste of Nagaland and interiors made of wood allow you to feel at home.
Insights About Nagaland
The Nagas inhabit the northeastern Indian states of Nagaland, parts of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Myanmar. However, the collective term “Naga” belies the variety that it encompasses. There are sixteen major tribes in Nagaland. The tribes that live in close geographic proximity have different- languages, food culture, clothing style.
Naga cuisine is very different from other Indian main cuisines. The food has a very different essence and it is similar to a lot of South-East Asian cuisine because it lies on that belt. The Naga’s eat healthy food and most of their food is very organic and basic with minimalistic flavourings.
What to Binge on?
The Nagaland Kitchen has three types of menu i.e Authentic Naga Cuisine , Thai and Chinese Cuisine.
I remember the first visit that was 2020 early February…umm yes before Covid-19 hit India.
Now visiting after an year, during the pandemic felt very weird but had surreal experience. Yes, now you all might be anxious to know what kind of safety measures the restaurant is following:
- Thermo Checks
- Hand Sanitizing
- Ensuring all staffs wearing Masks
- Contactless Menu as Payment(Don’t worry they will accept cash too)…
During the past visit we had California Rolls and Dry Bamboo Shoot.
Smoked pork with dry bamboo shoot was soft, with minimal fat or rather no offending fat, as is common with pork dishes. As the name says smoked, the dish had a strong smoky fragrance. The next one we had California Rolls. California Rolls is a type of sushi rolls. They are rolled inside-out and containing cucumber, crab meat. avocado and served with Wasabi dip.
During our recent visit which is supposed to be last Sunday, we had made sure this time we gonna eat a lot….
To begin with we had Crispy Chili Honey Lamb from the Chinese appetizer section. The crispy shredded lamb were tossed with red chilies, honey and garnished with sesame seeds. We also tried the Thai Chicken Panang Curry which tasted exactly like a Mangalore chicken based curry. Sliced chicken with rich and creamy flavor thick curry with coconut milk, veggies and red chilies.
Now, moving on to authentic Naga cuisine which we ate here and these are as follows:
- Crispy Pork Belly with Dry Fish Chutney Dip- It was really delicious, juicy but only one thing that bothered me is quantity. The quantity which had been served were not worth the price.
- Pork Anishi one of the signature dish of Ao Tribe Nagaland. Full of natural herbs, adequate portions of pork and cooked without oil. This one goes well with organic Naga sticky rice.
