Here, in an effort to get done with my reports on meals eaten out in Delhi in March, is a quick look at another meal I ate on this trip in Humayunpur. If you’ve been following my Delhi reports over the years—or if you know Delhi well—you know that Humayunpur, a village incorporated into South Delhi, is one of the major hubs of North Eastern Indian life in Delhi. It is home to a large number of people from the North Eastern states and it also contains stores that serve them, and an ever-growing number of restaurants that serve their foods. It has become my very favourite part of Delhi to eat in. When I lived in India, I knew very little of the foods of North Eastern India beyond Assam, and now I feel like I am making up for lost time. I ate lunch by myself in Humayunpur in the first week of this trip. That was an excellent Naga lunch at a tiny restaurant named Shilloi. The next week, just a couple of days before my return to Minnesota, I was back to eat another Naga lunch, this time with a friend at NCC.

Depending on which version of the restaurant’s paraphernalia you look at, NCC stands for either New Chinese Cafe (on the sign outside the restaurant) or Northeastern & Chinese Cafe (on the menu). By either name, they serve a mix of Indian Chinese, Korean and Naga dishes. The restaurant, only a bit larger than Shilloi, is located in the basement level, just next to the Nepali restaurant, Bhansaghar where I’d eaten a very nice lunch in December. You take a set of steep stairs down and turn right into the dining room. As you look back up from the bottom of the stairs, you’ll see that they have painted on them the distances from Humayunpur to the Eastern and North Eastern states of India, and also Tibet, Sikkim and Nepal (whose people and cuisines are also represented in Humayunpur). The dining room itself is yet another example of a North Eastern restaurant taking what would otherwise be an unprepossessing space and making it quite attractive.

We were there for an early lunch by Delhi standards (1 pm) and were the only diners in the restaurant for the length of our meal. But they seemed to be keeping up a steady stream of delivery app orders, which may well be the backbone of the business in off-peak times. Well, we were there for a Naga meal and so we skipped past the Chinese and Korean sections of the menu to the Naga selections. This includes a few dishes in the Pork Starters section and a bunch of thalis with different meat options (plus one veg option). We got an order of their Roasted Pork Ribs to start and then a thali each. My friend got the Smoked Pork Thali with axone (fermented soybeans) and bamboo shoots added on to the curry; and I got the Chicken Thali with bamboo shoots and mustard leaves added on to the curry. I’d actually wanted the Duck Thali but they didn’t have any duck available. We shared a large glass of their zutho or fermented rice beer on the side.

The pork rib, with a big ring of fat attached as is the Naga way, was just excellent, as were the seasoned French fries and chutney they were served with. The thalis arrived shortly after. As you would expect, the only difference in the thalis was the choice of meat main. Otherwise each thali came with a mound of rice (just white rice here), a bowl of dal, a bowl of crisp-fried karela (bitter gourd) and some boiled and raw veg; plus some more of the excellent chutney that had come with the ribs. I liked my taste of my friend’s smoked pork curry better but quite enjoyed my own chicken as well. We passed on sweets.

For a quick look at the restaurant, the menu and what we ate, launch the slideshow below. As you’ll see, the first few photographs are of general scenes in Humayunpur. I arrived about 15 minutes before my friend and spent sometime wandering the alleys. Among other things, I made a mental note of a few more places to try on subsequent trips.

Price? Thanks to the blurry picture I took of the electronic check, I can’t be absolutely sure (and we paid cash so can’t check a credit card statement either) but doing the math on the menu, the total would have been just over Rs. 1000 for the food and drink. Which is to say, it was excellent value, as is the norm in Humayunpur. I wouldn’t, however, recommend NCC for Naga food over either Shilloi or Hornbill in Humayunpur. The food was good but not at the level of either of those two places—and the Naga selection is not as wide as at either. And, as I noted in my wander around the alleys, there are quite a few more Naga places in Humayunpur that I have not yet tried. On my next visit to Delhi I hope to get to at least one of them.

Alright, what’s next on the food front? We had a very nice dinner at Myriel in St. Paul last evening. I should have that report up on Wednesday as per usual. Only two more Delhi reports left to go, I think. I’ll put the next one up next weekend.