There’s an unmatched aura about the family of India’s North Eastern States. This charming culture was thus at its best when I recently embarked on its culinary journey at North East Flavours - The House of Exotic Herbs.
The restaurant at Green Park has Mongolian ancestral recipes to offer that rewind the clock to more than 2000 years . The chefs barely use any oil and masala, and have organic and rare herbs in their locker. “We have procured ancient recipes from time immemorial with 40 variant herbs at our disposal, which are all organic and come from a chain of suppliers from Nagaland, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam,” said the Director of restaurant, Bill Lotha, who hails from Nagaland.
The buffet consisted of an array of appetisers. It goes without saying that the Northeast is renowned for its pork dishes and I was spoiled for choice as five different plates of pork were served — Arunachal’s wak-si-sook, where small pieces of pork were fried in natural herbs; Meghalaya’s smoked pork; fire burned pork ribs cooked in Arunachali style; Assamese fried pork ribs and crispy pork ribs marinated in aromatic Naga herbs.
Their native chefs conjured up nya si waphaat, boneless fish minced with Arunachali herbs and cooked in bamboo chunga; chicken dry fried cooked in sesame flavours from Manipur; mangsuso nu-kung, an ancient Naga styled smoked buff and honoso shungcho rhuchii, golden roasted chicken cooked in rare Naga herbs. It was the crispy and yet tender entree of the Naga-styled pork ribs that however hogged the spotlight.
Naga-styled pork ribs
The main course was another mouth-watering prospect and it lived to its billing. Steamed rice was served along with wokoso rhuchii/rhuchak, tender pork cooked in Naga style using fermented and organic bamboo shoot stem and herbs; Tripura’s tokhan, a delicious chicken curry cooked with sour tomatoes; ngatok, a succulent and velvety bowl of fish cooked in Arunachali herbs; and han-ba-shan, Naga assorted vegetables, cooked with dry fish and exotic herbs.
Iromba, a Manipuri style chutney with fish paste; and machi-han, an ancient Naga style chutney with organic khonko complimented the main course dishes with splendour to complete a wholesome and sumptuous meal.
The culture of any place is honoured and revered by locals and tourists alike. However, celebrating a culture, and exposing it in a land away from its origin requires courage and risk. With that being said, North East Flavours can hold their head high in allowing us to traverse on a journey of ancient culinary tradition from the entire Northeast of India under one single roof.
