Encounters At A Naga Dining Table

Nothing is off the table when it comes to Naga cuisine. The tribes of Nagaland are broad-spectrum omnivores. From finding variations to cure and cook meat in all forms to finding inventive ways to incorporate bamboo, soya and other interesting vegetarian options in their raw, cooked and fermented state. No two Naga tribes are alike when it comes to their cuisines.

Konyak cooking sticky rice in morning

The two-meals-a-day tradition.

Most tribals take only two early meals--one around 11-11:30 am followed by dinner around 7-7:30 pm--a day. Rice, the only cereal grain, is common to both meals. Breakfast is not considered compulsory among the 17 tribes, seldom settling on steamed glutinous rice cakes, which are also termed biscuits by Garo (Wante) and Kuki tribes.

The 'unami' dimension.

The 'unami' dimension of Naga food is through a fermented soya marinade, Axone (pronounced Akhuni). Said to be invented by the Sumi or Sema ethnic group--who also make it the best, by prepping it for three days to a month--Axone is used in various degrees of potency and form. The only other ingredient with a visceral footprint is bamboo shoots.

Meaty Matters

Pork is the default setting for all Naga tribes except Kacharis who prefer mutton, duck and chicken. The Garo tribe has a penchant for beef, along with one or two vegetable dishes, Naga dal, and king-chilli fortified salad. Chilli and fat help the Naga tribes to fight the cold. Meat preparations are either boiled, smoked, steamed or fermented chiefly using salt, chili (king or green) and Naga ginger for seasoning; garlic is sparingly utilised.

Here are some of the highlights of the tribes and their cuisine:

The Zeliang tribe

Zeliangs live amid vast forest cover. They hunt and eat everything that moves on four. Flying squirrel, deer, porcupine, wild boar, monkeys are all dispensable cooked with Njegichang (fermented mustard leaf), which when added to Raja Mirchi forms a chutney called Njegichangtam. The vegetarian dishes include ferns and flowers.

Animal skull display by Zeliangs

Hebakgi, dry pork (can be beef or chicken) preparation, Hebakcha - fermented pork fat in spicy thick broth is also their specialty as is rice beer fermented in earthen pots. All across, rice beer which is chugged in bamboo tumblers and or buffalo horns, is known as Thuthse and Zutho.

Sumi smoking meat

The Lothas

The hero-ingredient for the Lothas, is their bamboo, it is either consumed fresh, fermented and, or dried-shredded. Their preferred dish is the Penjunghan - a dry beef dish with black sesame and Mari Khumkho - a brinjal family berry that's served bolied and dried.

The Sumis

Awoshi (smoked pork), Axone infused pig head ( Awokutusu), baby-pig (Awoti) is often accompanied by Axone mashed in with local ginger (Akuwu) to make a chutney. Their specialized pork drying technique, Akipiki, can preserve the meat upto a year. They also make a dish called Akibi, mashed yams with green spinach leaves (malao) which is quite delicious.

The Chakasangs

This tribe uses the oak-fire smoking method for cooking pork, to make a dish called Thiche. It goes well with their zingy rice-beer.

The Yimchungers

Pork is prominent with Yimchunger tribe which cooks the meat with Kohlar (kidney beans).

Kuki woman barbequing Pork-blood sausage

The Changs

In this tribe's cuisine, Ngong - black pepper - finds its way nearly in all dishes most notably in Khaisu, a pork blood sausage mixed in with liver, garlic, ginger, bamboo-shoots and pork-lard.

The Aos

This tribe is most fond of veggies. Mostly forsaking king chilli, they take recourse in the greener option or viridiscent versions like Kum Sum Chibi (mustard leaves that can last till three years) which they eat steamed or boiled. They can make boiled pumpkin tempting by just stirring in Nangpera (basil) and Napha (herb-type). Their meat dishes include- Wajem (pork/beef with Anishi) and Rapi / Asang (dry fish with yam-leaves/ fern). Simple Naga beans can turn to magic in Azungken (salad or chutney form) which can be heaped on Mabok Jang (sticky rice), or diluted with water for Sotts¨¹ (sweetened/ salted for taste). Also famous for Amsu (powdered rice porridge, mince meat - preferably preferably chicken and veggies)

The Angamis

This tribe prefers shelled gastropods, like snails. They add sesame seeds to cooked snails, they term it Kenya. Happy munchers of Mepfi (hornet bee), they make good use of Khuvie (chives) & Nyietso (local basil) and possess alluring preparations of porridges, notably, Galho (meat, fish, axone and forest greens) and Kebha (local chicken).

The Sangtams

Beans of the colored kind, Ling Le, are what Sangtams are recognised for, which they boil before admitting smoked medium-sized pork resulting in Ling Lehe, a mandatory item in every red-lettered celebration. They were the only ones found to ferment beer purely out of millet, (Tetse Yongkha) and Job's Tears (Mumtshe). Their ginger, Hongsee, is the strongest among Naga tribals and enjoy a healthy growth of Shongan (type of mint, used dry) that they add to meals. Like Angamis, they cook bison, Ngouphe, cooked fresh or smoked.

The Konyaks

In vegetables, yam surfaced as a standout. Konyaks, principally known for that tuber pair it with smoked pork, ginger, garlic, any green leaves in Deng. They are also known for a difficult-to-get fruit, Vekok Nbag, to produce a chutney, cooked with varieties of small/big mushrooms, eaten only on special ocassions. Yuphe (flying squirrel) is a supposed delicacy.

The Rengmas

The other big on yam harvests - the longer version , Rengmas who claim it to be better than the rotund species, dice it with forest-sourced Hentser¨¹ (their speciality mustard leaves, Hinpela (green leafy vegetables), They cook their river fish by burning out the Tseh¨¹shun (green bamboo) after having stuffed it with fish wrapped in banana leaves.

The Kacharis

Understandably, non-beef eaters, being the only Hindu tribe from Nagaland but surely are better recognised for their proficiency with silkworm(s) (Lotma) - which they consume after simple frying and in a dish called Maibrainlotma (steamed rice with silkworm); adding omelette turns it to, Maibrainlotmatoudi.

Pork with Kohlar from Yimchingur

The Phoms

Yam (Tung) found in Phom's Yoo Thrang - chopped, sun-dried yam leaves, pig brain, bamboo shoot, wrapped in banana leaves, and steamed, if not in all their servings, is more starchy than its generic native tubers. When, Eshei (spring onion), Teng (ginger), Lakshing (garlic) is added to boiled pork/chicken/bison and slow cooked with constant stirring for two hours, they call it Anho. Six-seven types of forest sourced leaves like Tanglak, Kainam, Khaiphu Lak, boils down to Menchihow.

The Khiamniungans

Bison (Mithun) is majorly eschewed by the Khiamniungans, Jeyankne - bison skin (Nikhu) bunched with jhum (gummy) rice and Piuchiuchie - a bison with or without skin pickle benefiting from effects of hand-shreded ginger, chilli ( king / green) , being the standouts. They are the only ones to bear suggestions of Neim (a veg) with Zu (intense aromatic spice).

The Kukis

Kukis have Mepoh, an one-pot meal comprising local white rice (no fans of sticky rice, them) with curried pork/beef/chicken, king chilli, into which if wood-ash soda is put, becomes, Changalman. They make their sticky rice cake, Changalmanchanglhah, by submerging banana leaf-wrapped paste in boiling water.

The Pochurys

One of the most colorfully fitted natives, Pochury, the local propagators of salt-making - the only one to make salt brines swear by Kochu Machi (boiled local rice and half-dried fish cooked with axone), relishing it perhaps with Ajiju, a gummy rice (Kii-Nya) beer, called the champange of Nagaland.

Sudipto Mullick is a freelance writer based in Kolkata. Photos are author's own.