Naga Food

Rather late in life I made the startling discovery that chillies (incidentally, the hottest ones in the world grow here) came to my country only just a couple of centuries ago. I wonder how many people in Nagaland know that. To taste their food, one would think very few! It’s hot, hot and hotter still.
I was first exposed to Naga flavours from friends at school (at Shillong) who would bring dried meat (generally beef, sometimes pork) pickles. With its grainy constituency, it soon got christened ‘gunpowder’ – need I say more!
Here at Guwahati, Naga food was, until recently, available only on one day in the year close to Christmas. I’m told it started as a dinner by the Naga mothers staying here for all the young Naga students and for the general Naga Diaspora at Guwahati. It soon fell on the ears of people like me who still had tearful memories from school and so one evening, my wife and I found ourselves standing in a serpentine queue of many known and a few unknown faces. The venue, the more that a hundred year old Church at Panbazar. As the queue progressed so did the flavours. Soon, money changed hands and we were inside a hall. A long line of tables put together served as the buffet food counter. Under the Naga mothers’ watchful supervision, the food was being served out to people, again in a queue. We soon fell into line and greedily helped ourselves to the food.
Bamboo shoots (either fresh or fermented) & chillies are omnipresent in Naga food. Add to that a variety of meats (including dried ones), herbs (some found only in Nagaland) and you have the many curries that they serve with rice. The boiled vegetables that typically include squash, cabbages, etc are essential pit-stops when your mouth becomes so numb from the chillies that your tongue no longer feels the palate! The chutneys are also as varied in taste and flavour but rest assured, they are all hot. The meat pickles I have already described above but I particularly recommend the dry powdery one. One has to but eat with one’s fingers with the flavours lingering on in you fingertips long after the meal’s over. This in spite of the diligent scrubbing.
Of late, 2 Naga ladies (God bless them) have started a takeaway at Guwahati at Tinali on the RGB Road within the ‘Hangout’ complex. I must say the food is good – try the pork curries. They also have a selection of chutneys everyday. We even got their special herbs on one occasion.
However the restaurant that really impressed me was one at Shillong which I’ll include here anyway (that’s the best part about your own blog-you can make, bend, change the rules as you go along). This tiny place besides the Nongtumai field on the Fire Brigade road is called Naga Mandarin. There’s little mandarin and plenty Naga about the décor, which is commendable. The menu placard on the table informs you of the Naga Food combinations available for the day. These are preplated with little bowls for the curries. The chutneys are placed on a piece of banana leaf in the plate. Full marks for presentation, excellent preparations only I suspect a little toned down for the non-Naga palate. I cannot comment on the mandarin menu as I didn’t so much as read it! My mobile camera didn’t do much justice but I’m putting up the photos anyway. The wooden plates & bowls added to the general appeal.