Naga cuisine is the traditional cuisine of the

Naga people Nagas are various ethnic groups native to northeastern India and northwestern Myanmar. The groups have similar cultures and traditions, and form the majority of population in the Indian states of Nagaland and Manipur and Naga Self-Administer ...

Nagaland Nagaland () is a landlocked state in the northeastern region of India. It is bordered by the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh to the north, Assam to the west, Manipur to the south and the Sagaing Region of Myanmar to the east. Its capital cit ...

, India. It features

meat Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted, farmed, and scavenged animals for meat since prehistoric times. The establishment of settlements in the Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of animals such as chic ...

s and

fish Fish are Aquatic animal, aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack Limb (anatomy), limbs with Digit (anatomy), digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and Chondrichthyes, cartilaginous and bony fish as we ...

, which are often

smoked Smoking is the process of flavoring, browning, cooking, or preserving food by exposing it to smoke from burning or smoldering material, most often wood. Meat, fish, and '' lapsang souchong'' tea are often smoked. In Europe, alder is the tra ...

, dried or

fermented Fermentation is a metabolic process that produces chemical changes in organic substrates through the action of enzymes. In biochemistry, it is narrowly defined as the extraction of energy from carbohydrates in the absence of oxygen. In food p ...

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Overview

The various

have their own cuisines, but often exchange recipes. A typical Naga meal consists of Rice, a meat dish, one or two boiled vegetable dishes, and a

chutney A chutney is a spread in the cuisines of the Indian subcontinent. Chutneys are made in a wide variety of forms, such as a tomato relish, a ground peanut garnish, yogurt or curd, cucumber, spicy coconut, spicy onion or mint dipping sauce ...

/pickle (Tathu). Rice is the main carbohydrate source in the Naga diet and this region produces a number of prized rice varieties, but rice is also imported into the region from other states. Dried/smoked meat is a very important ingredient in Naga cuisine and has practical significance for sustenance farmers/foragers and hunters. Smoked meat is often kept for an entire year to provide

food security Food security speaks to the availability of food in a country (or geography) and the ability of individuals within that country (geography) to access, afford, and source adequate foodstuffs. According to the United Nations' Committee on World ...

for individual families. Nagas tend to prefer boiled edible organic leaves and wild forage which makes up a large part of the diet of many Naga regions. Naga food tends to be spicy and there are several different varieties of chillies in Nagaland. The most notable being

Naga Morich The Naga Morich, (also known as Naga Moriç in Sylheti) is a chili pepper grown in Northeast India and Bangladesh. There is no consensus on whether this is synonymous with the Bhut Jolokia, or a different variety. It is also one of the hottest ...

and

Bhut jolokia The ghost pepper, also known as ''bhut jolokia'' (which literally means 'Bhutan pepper' in Assamese), is an interspecific hybrid chili pepper cultivated in Northeast India. It is a hybrid of ''Capsicum chinense'' and ''Capsicum frutescens''. ...

. The

ginger Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is a herbaceous perennial which grows annual pseudostems (false stems made of the rolled bases of ...

used in the Naga cuisine is spicy, aromatic and is different from the common ginger. Garlic and ginger leaves are also used in cooking meat dishes. Sichuan pepper is also a popular spice used by the Nagas.

Dishes

* Fermented

bamboo shoot Bamboo shoots or bamboo sprouts are the edible shoots (new bamboo culms that come out of the ground) of many bamboo species including ''Bambusa vulgaris'' and ''Phyllostachys edulis''. They are used as vegetables in numerous Asian dishes and ...

s made from tender shoot of the Bamboo tree are often served with fish and pork. * ''

Akhuni ''Akhuni'' ( Nagamese: ), also known as ''axone'', is a fermented soybean product commonly used in Naga cuisine. ''Axone'' is perhaps the most commonly used fermented product of Nagaland and the North Eastern Region of India. Etymology T ...

'' (axone), a fermented soybean product often served with smoked pork and beef, it's a Sema tribe delicacy. * ''Anishi'' are fermented taro leaves made into patties and then smoked over the fire or sun dried, it's an Ao tribe delicacy. * ''

Galho ''Galho'' or mix rice dish is a popular Naga food made from a mixture of rice, vegetables and various meats. It is usually served simple that is with its main ingredients but one can try or put various other ingredients into the ''Galho''. Ge ...

'' is a mix rice dish made from a mixture of rice, vegetables and various meats. *

Smoked meat Smoked meat is the result of a method of preparing red meat, white meat, and seafood which originated in the Paleolithic, Paleolithic Era. Smoking adds Flavor (taste), flavor, improves the appearance of meat through the Maillard reaction, and ...

produced by keeping the meat above a fire or hanging on the wall of the kitchen for anywhere between 1 day to 2 weeks or longer. * ''Yongjack'' (

Parkia speciosa ''Parkia speciosa'', the bitter bean, twisted cluster bean or stink bean, is a plant of the genus ''Parkia'' in the family Fabaceae. It bears long, flat edible beans with bright green seeds the size and shape of plump almonds which have a ra ...

?) are long treebeans often eaten roasted over coals, and are often traded in bunches.

References

Naga recipes
from ''Naga Ethnic Cuisine - A Class of its Own'', Naga Women Voluntary Association. Culture of Nagaland Northeast Indian cuisine Indian cuisine by state or union territory Burmese cuisine Cuisine by ethnicity {{India-cuisine-stub