Culinary trail brings rustic flavours of Nagaland to Chennai

CHENNAI: Chef Alistair Lethorn, popularly known as Chef Aal, in his five-day pop-up at The Park, is trying to bring Nagaland to your plate. “For the past six years, I have been organising similar pop-ups in major cities across the country. The motive behind all the pop-ups is to promote north-east food, especially Nagaland,” says chef Aal.

As not many are aware of either the north-east food or the Naga culture, he skillfully tries to blend traditional dishes with modern techniques. Explaining the speciality of Naga cuisine, chef Aal says that the food is rich in ingredients, fermentation and smoking methods. “Naga people come from warrior tribes and back then they used to preserve meat by smoking it. After some time, they started to preserve vegetables as well. Started as a way of survival, now this method is a part of their culture,” explains the 40-year-old chef, who started cooking when he was 17. He also adds that the cuisine may not be on the favourite list of many people as it is rustic and has overpowering flavours.

Naga cuisine is heavy on meat, fermentation and ingredients such as bamboo shoots. Another aspect unique to this cuisine is chili hotness as they do not add any other masala. For the pop-up, chef Aal has curated an equal number of veg and non-veg dishes. Among the non-veg food items, the spotlight is on pork and beef. Six varieties of chutneys are served (three veg and three non-veg). In the veg, there is mashed potato with a bland flavour to balance the taste of other dishes. The green chilli and garlic and axone and king chilli are spicy and have smoky effects. Fermented fish, Bombay duck and shredded dried buff are served in the non-veg options.

The bitterness in bitter brinjal is equal to that of bitter gourd. The jackfruit on axone is jackfruit cooked with fermented soya bean (Axone) which has an overpowering taste of bitterness and fermentation. The chicken prepared with mango ginger is top-notch, with succulent smoky pieces.

To give a different touch, the portobello mushrooms in michinga have orange, cherry tomatoes, and mushrooms giving citric savour and breaking the monotonous overpowering palate. The Naga vegetable stew with black sticky rice is another must-try in the main course, with perfectly cooked vegetables and subtle flavours. Relish the authentic taste of Naga cuisine with the galho, which is basically Naga khichari.

The black rice pudding is apt to satisfy your sweet tooth. Pineapple pieces act as a cherry on top of the pudding, adding citric flavour.

The Naga Culinary Trail is open today for lunch and dinner at the Lotus in The Park, Nungambakkam.