In my most recent report on meals at Matamaal—the Kashmiri restaurant in Gurgaon—I noted that eating there has become a ritual on my/our recent trips to Delhi. So too has eating in Humayunpur Market, one of the major centers of North East Indian life in Delhi, especially of North Indian cuisine. The market is dotted with restaurants, small and large, that serve the cuisines of most of the states east of Bangladesh (I’ve not yet come across any references to restaurants serving the food of Tripura), along with Tibetan, Nepali, Korean and various East Asian cuisines. On my visit to Delhi in December I ate a Nepali lunch at Bhansaghar and an Arunachali lunch at Arunachali Sajolang. Both were excellent. Away from Humayunpur, I also ate an excellent Naga lunch at Dzükou in Vasant Kunj. I was hellbent on eating Naga food again on this trip and this time I fulfilled that desire in Humayunpur, at a small restaurant named Shilloi.

Unlike most of my other Humayunpur outings, Shilloi was not recommended to me by friends or food writers. I came upon it by just browsing the market on Google Maps and clicking on the names of restaurants and reading reviews by people from the North East. Shilloi had received a fair bit of praise and so I resolved to check it out. I arrived to find a very tiny restaurant a bit off the main Humayunpur drag (not too far from Hornbill and easier to find). The smell of various fermented foods was in the air as I stepped around a vegetable seller’s cart and entered the small dining room. They had just about opened when I arrived and I had my pick of the tables. I sat down and perused the menu.

That menu is comprised entirely of Naga dishes. There’s a section of dry-fried dishes; a section of smoked pork preparations; a section of pork preparations; a section of chicken preparations; a list of thali options; a section titled “Ethnic Naga Cuisine”; and smaller sections of fish dishes and chutneys. I was tempted by so many of the dishes but, being alone, had to stick with a thali. I was between the Pork Bamboo Shoot Thali and the Smoked Pork with Anishi thali but the aroma of bamboo shoots from the kitchen made my choice. After ordering I sheepishly asked the server if it would be possible to get a bit of the Smoked Pork with Anishi added on for an extra charge and she said they would just give me a half portion of the regular order.

What else was on the thali when it arrived? A killer chutney of roasted tomatoes etc.; a very simple and bland preparation of masoor dal; simply boiled vegetables (beans and a local variety of water spinach); a large mound of red rice and papads. I quickly got down to business. Both pork preparations were excellent. At first it was the pork with bamboo shoots (thick and tasty) that I liked more but by the end I think I liked the smoked pork with anishi (fermented and smoked taro leaves) just a little bit more—I had to get some extra rice to mop up both curries. I will confess that I did not eat all of the fat on the pieces of pork. By the way, when I say that the roasted tomato chutney was killer, I don’t mean that it was lethally hot. It did have some good heat to it but it was quite approachable on the heat front for this non North Easterner (I’m not quite at the eating ghost peppers raw as a condiment level); no, I meant that it was just excellent. I wish I could have bought a jar to take home.

For a look at the restaurant, the menu and everything I ate, launch the slide show below. Scroll down to see how much it all cost, for thoughts on the meal as a whole, and to see what’s coming next from this Delhi trip, which is just about to wind down.

Service was friendly and present when needed. The cost was extremely reasonable. The thali itself was Rs. 300; the half-portion of the smoked pork added Rs. 220. With the extra rice and a bottle of water the total before tip was Rs. 580 or just about $6.75. This would be an outrageous deal in the US, of course, but it’s also a very reasonable price in Delhi, and for the quality it really felt like a steal.

I think it’s likely I’ll be back at Shilloi with the family on our next trip to Delhi. But I am hoping to eat another meal at Humayunpur before I return to Minnesota in a few days. I was hoping to eat Khasi or  Garo food for the first time at a place called Oh! Shillong that shows up on Google Maps, but it turns out that’s a cloud kitchen and only prepares food for delivery (we’re a bit too far away). So it’ll be either a Manipuri or another Naga meal. Let’s see how it goes.

By the way, as I was wandering through the alleys a little bit after lunch, I came upon a second, far larger and swankier location of Bhansaghar not too far from Shilloi. The staff member I spoke to said they were operating two locations at once—I’m not sure what’s up with that or whether the much smaller original will close at some point.