Alas, I completely whiffed on my posting plans for the weekend. I’d said I would post the last report from our Japan trip last summer and one more from Los Angeles at the end of December but I didn’t get around to either. Like I said, the World Cup has done a real number on my ability to get most things done. I will try my best to catch up with those posts this week but in the meantime I’m going to stick with the regular rotation for the summer which has reports from Delhi or Bombay going up on Mondays. The two previous weeks began with reports on two coastal meals from Bombay in April: at Pradeep Gomantak and Sarangaa; this week I go back a few more months to my first visit to Delhi in December. The cuisine featured here is one from a completely different part of the country: Nagaland. No surprise: the meal was eaten in one of Delhi’s most prominent Northeastern enclaves, Humayunpur, at a restaurant I had not previously eaten at: Dear Naga. Here’s a quick look at it.
As I’ve said before, Humayunpur is my favourite place to eat in Delhi and I try to get there at least once on every trip. I’ve previously reported on meals eaten at three Naga restaurants there: NCC, Shilloi and Hornbill. I’m always looking to expand my coverage though and so when a friend expressed interest in eating in Humayunpur I chose the relatively new (I think) Dear Naga. Said friend (who is also a colleague at the college) is also from Delhi but we’re rarely in India at the same time; I think this was our first time eating together in Delhi. He’s been hearing me talk about Northeastern food in Humayunpur for a while now and so I was glad to be able to finally introduce him to some of it.
Dear Naga is located in one of Humayunpur’s many narrow alleys. It appears to be two restaurants in one. You’ll see a smaller sign outside for a place called My Thai but I don’t think it’s actually a separate restaurant. Instead, there are two menus at the tables at Dear Naga: one for My Thai and one for Dear Naga. Now, the Thai (and other East Asian) restaurants in Humayunpur are apparently quite good—and I really should check that part of the scene out at some point—but we were there for Naga food and that’s what we got. The restaurant—like most in Humayunpur—is quite attractive on the inside, despite—like most in Humayunpur—being quite small. There are a few tables downstairs and some more up a narrow staircase on the floor above. We were there on the early side for Delhi weekday lunch and were the only people dining in for most of our time there. I’m guessing evenings and weekends are busier. The food, however, can’t be very much tastier for it was very tasty indeed.
We started with an order of the chicken liver and gizzard dry fry. This was billed as a starter but turned out to be quite a large portion. It was also tremendously good with a decent chilli kick. We got a thali each to follow. The thalis in the main are identical: regardless of which one you order, you get an exorbitant amount of rice plus little mounds of chutney, potato mash, Aon rosep (bitter eggplant, long beans etc. cooked with fermented bamboo till dry), boiled veg and a large bowl of dal; what distinguishes the thalis is the main dish you get. We were going to share and so chose two each of us wanted: the chicken (with bamboo shoot and Sichuan pepper) and the smoked pork with axone (fermented soybeans).
Because of how good that chicken liver and gizzard dish was, and also because we are incredibly greedy, we added on two more side dishes: a dry preparation of kidney beans and a buff (i.e water buffalo) innards stir-fry. Both of these were very good as well, as were the smoked pork and the chicken curry and everything else on the thali. Our only regret was not being able to finish all the food, for there was way too much on our table (don’t worry: the leftovers were taken home).
For a look at the restaurant, their menu, and what we ate, launch the slideshow below. Scroll down to see how much it cost and to see what’s coming next
Service was friendly and there when needed. The total cost before tip for all of the above plus two fresh lime sodas and a bottle of water was Rs. 2447 or just about $25. That’s actually on the high side for a meal in Humayunpur but please keep in mind that we ordered enough for four people. If we had just got a thali each like normal people the price would have been less than half of that.
Alright, my next normally scheduled report will be another Twin Cities report from earlier in the year on Wednesday. But I will try my best to squeeze this past weekend’s missed Japan report in tomorrow as well. Let’s see how it goes.