North-eastern flavours add fun to Goa's food scene

Goans liking this cuisine feels like a no-brainer: we love our chillies too, enjoy eating pork, and drying and salting fish is a common practice as is eating seasonal greens, and there’s a shared love for rice and fish.

This fascination with food from the North-East isn’t just a fling. It’s a slow romance, aided by a growing community of work professionals making Goa their home since the pandemic, a larger awareness of India’s diverse cuisines, customers willing to experiment, and a few spirited chefs from the region eager to showcase their skills.

At café alag in Siolim, co-owner and Assamese musician Uddipan Sarmah, and his partner Bompi Angu, source their coffee from Assam and Nagaland, make a latte with Lakadong turmeric from Meghalaya, and bring the smoked pork in their sando from Dibrugarh. “I guess the North-East is the new hype," laughs Sarmah.

In Goa, this statement holds true. The Naga-born Ati Aier, who moved to Goa in 2019, started cooking to satisfy a pregnant woman’s craving for smoked pork and other treats from home. Since then, she has hosted pop-ups, run a stall at local festivals, retailed her products (pastrami, beef floss) at supermarkets and started a supper club. Earlier this year, she opened her first restaurant, Oya’s Umami in Panaji offering Naga food and some Asian fare. “From my experience of having fed friends and guests over the years, I’ve seen how, once they taste the flavours, they stay with them," she says. It explains why the 35-seater Oya’s Umami often runs full.

There are others who have trodden a similar path. Livingstone Shazia, a Tangkhul Naga from Manipur, came to Goa in 2008. Wanting to serve food from the North-East, the self-taught chef opened Meiphung North Eastern Kitchen in 2015, in Calangute. The menu is mainly Naga and Manipuri, including dishes like smoked pork with axone, Naga pork curry, and fish tenga, and some Thai offerings.

At The Hungry Hornbill, chef Huto Chophi, who moved here from Nagaland about five years ago, worked odd jobs till he opened his restaurant, which now sits on a street lined with tourist-friendly, “pure veg" restaurants in Candolim. “I’ve always wanted to cook north-eastern food. When I got this place six months back, I was initially scared. But then, I have many friends and I knew they would come to eat my food," he says. The tourists come for Asian fare, but those in the know, go for their fill of hamuk (snails), smoked pork and chicken, singju (Manipuri salad) and Chophi’s favourite chow.

Then there are couples like Monalisa Baruah and Saurav Parashar, who moved from Assam in June 2015 seeking a change, and it came to them in the form of a restaurant a few months later in October. Soul Chef began its journey in Candolim serving the Khasi delicacy jadoh (meat and rice dish) and pork curry with black sesame seeds. “We wanted to tell people there’s more to the cuisine than bamboo shoot and ghost pepper," says Parashar. They also served a signature chorizo momos and recipes learned from friends back home. Soul Chef has seen many changes: it moved to Mala, Panaji, then shut down because of real estate issues, became a cloud kitchen, and will now reopen this month in Caranzalem.

Another champion of the cuisine is the Dimapur-born Anglo Indian chef Alistair Lethorn, who left home in 2018 with an urge to cook the food he grew up eating. In Goa, he is known for his Naga pop-ups, and his former restaurant Aal’s Kitchen, which shut down last year due to infrastructural issues.

At a recent pop-up at Westin Goa, Lethorn curated a five-course menu of traditional dishes, but with modern presentation: slow-cooked pork belly with dried bamboo shoots, smoked pork galho (a dish similar to porridge), banana leaf fish with michinga and bitter brinjal to name a few. “I still get reservation calls for the restaurant," he chuckles. Some clients will call ahead, order his food, freeze it and send it to family in other cities.

Chefs like Lethorn, Aier, Chophi, Parashar, and Shazia have now become ambassadors of the cuisine. They are aided by a stellar supporting cast, including suppliers filling their coffers with fresh vegetables like mustard leaves and taro leaves, axone (fermented soybean), anishi, pickles, and snails.

Take Morung in Panaji, a clothing and organic store selling smoked pickles, axone, anishi and snails. Opened less than a year ago, it is run by Wepelhiu Kapfo from Nagaland and her husband who goes by the name RK. “Even my Goan customers love the bamboo shoot and dried fish," says Kapfo.

“There’s always been a love for food from the North-East in some way. Social media and the internet have only helped in highlighting it. While there’s naturally a bit of trend energy, the curiosity and interest behind it feel genuine and have lasted," says Aier.

Suffice to say, the flavours of Aier’s cold black sesame noodles and beef with bamboo shoot; Pots-N-Grillz’ eromba (mashed vegetables with fermented fish) and chicken thukpa (noodle soup); Soul Chef’s black sesame chicken and masor tenga (Assamese fish curry) and Meiphung’s boiled mustard leaves, Naga garlic chutney and Manipuri kangsoi (stew) with fermented fish, certainly linger. They are bold, comforting and honest.

Joanna Lobo is a Goa-based journalist.