Enjoying a meal made of the world’s hottest chilli

If you have always haunted the Nagaland outlet at Dilli Haat for its dimsums, spare ribs and thukpas, and given its traditional Naga thali an occasional chance, time you sought full-fledged specialties from an authentic Naga kitchen, right in the heart of South Delhi.

Snuggled up among a series of restaurants flourishing in the dilapidated Uphaar cinema complex in New Delhi's Green Park Extension isNagaland's Kitchen, a cosy little restaurant promising to give you the bigger picture into traditional Naga cooking.

Owned and managed by Chubamanen Longkumer, and his sisters Washimenla Longkumer and Tuluyinla Longkumer of Nagaland, the very set of folks who own your favourite Naga outlet at Dilli Haat, personally run the kitchen here to ensure authenticity of taste.

Decor: The interiors are quite unusual albeit rudimentary. You have basic wooden dining tables strewn across the hall while one section has log wood partitions going all the way over your head to create a rustic little canopy. Seating 48 diners in a go including the smaller dining space on the first floor complete with a respectably stocked bar, the restaurant is a fine, homey place for a Sunday meal. The lighting is dim upstairs and opens up a collector's series of Elvis Presley posters aside from the spears, headdress and accessories made of shells and beads representative of the various tribes.

Naga's love of Bhut Jolokia: Naga food is not for the faint of the heart, for you need an immense heat baring threshold to go ahead with an out-and-out Naga selection of dishes laced with the lethal 'Raja Mircha' locally called Bhut Jolokia (meaning ghost chilli). Arguably the hottest chilli in the world containing the highest naturally producing amount of capsaicin (a pungent compound found in chillies) in the world, a meal cooked with Bhut Jolokia as its key ingredient is enough to send you screaming for the hills. And to your dismay, if only, even a basic chutney is loaded with this famous Naga ingredient believed to enhance the flavour of the dish.

Another pre-requisite for enjoying a no-holds-barred Naga meal is your willingness to try out pork in every form. Nagas love their pork, and prefer adding it to every dish they prepare, and if you cannot love and appreciate pork, you are going to truly miss out the essence of Naga cooking. Not to mention, there are a range of offerings in the chicken and fish category, and they too have been treated with enough respect to bring out the local flavour. For instance, the chicken gizzards with dry bamboo shoot we sampled from the appetiser menu struck us for the pungency of the herbs which bode well with the chewy yet flavourful gizzard pieces.

Food: Calling for a portion of pork ribs served with a lemon and beetroot salad together with Raja Mircha chutney is an absolute mandate. The ribs are succulent and definitely filling. Add to the arrangement a mug of chilled beer. When dipping your piece of meat into the flaming chutney first-ever time, err on the side of caution, else you might have to down gallons of water before you are ready to take another bite.

In main course, the traditional Naga thali is a good bet for the uninitiated. You get a sense of what typically a Naga meal looks like and its bitter-hot flavours. But if you are willing to let your senses guide you, ask for a bowl of steamed rice with smoked pork cooked with bamboo shoot and spinach, and a steamed fish curry cooked with Naga herbs. Your mains would be accompanied by a dry fish chutney, a dry pork chutney, Raja Mircha chutney, and the fragrant 'Akhuni', a fermented soyabean pickle topped with coriander. The dry fish chutney cooked with fresh tomatoes is an explosion of flavours combined with the heat from the Naga chillies. Every dish you try out except the bland dal is pungent, for when the Nagas add chillies they do it rather generously.

Vodka with a spin: If vodka shots are meant to give an instant buzz, what happens when you down a shot of 'Raja Mircha Vodka'. You are left with a burning sensation all the way from your throat to the stomach that simply refuses to go away! The drink is a hysterical innovation that involves soaking the Bhut Jolokia in vodka for six long hours before pouring them out in shot glasses. The idea is for the alcohol to soak up the heat and the fruity fragrance of the chilli. If not for the kick, try it out for its novelty value.

Service: The restaurant staff is friendly, accommodating and learned, a very important quality in serving a lesser explored cuisine as Naga. From how the meat is cooked, to the usage of herbs, and the taste they render are in the know of the servers, and they wisely guide you through the menu. 

Rating: 8.5/10

Where: Nagaland's Kitchen, S-2, Uphaar Cinema Complex,