Let’s stay in Humayunpur. As I noted in my report on an excellent Manipuri lunch at Chak Khum on Thursday, more than half of my meals out on my two-week trip to Delhi/Gurgaon in late-July/early-August were eaten in Humayunpur. Humayunpur, as those who read my Delhi reports should know by now, is one of the major centers of Northeast Indian life in the city and its streets are lined by an ever-expanding number of restaurants from those Northeastern states. Some of my favourite places to eat at in Humayunpur serve the foods of Nagaland and it takes a great deal of effort to not just keep going back to Hornbill or Dear Naga or Shilloi (to name only three). But I am determined to eat at as many of the restaurants in Humayunpur as possible, and so on this trip I visited two Naga restaurants I had not previously tried. I have for you today a report on the first of these: Farmer’s Kitchen, a tiny place deep inside Humayunpur that serves Ao Naga food. I ended up here pretty much by chance after the place I had expressly left home to eat at turned out to be closed due to the monsoon rain coming in through the ceiling (!). I am happy to say it was a fabulous meal.
It was raining cats and dogs as I walked into the restaurant. If it hadn’t been, I wouldn’t have ended up there. After finding my intended port of call closed I had set off walking towards the front-end of Humayunpur Market but the easy way there was completely flooded. I went down the opposite lane instead and found myself between the well-known Rosang Cafe on the right and Farmer’s Kitchen right opposite it on my left. I’m not sure why I decided to walk into Farmer’s Kitchen but I’m very glad I did (though I’m sure I would have enjoyed Rosang Kitchen as well).
It’s a small but attractive restaurant (as most in Humayunpur are). Perhaps on account of the torrential rain, I was the only person eating there over the course of my meal. As I was eating alone, it was going to be a thali for me and luckily, Farmer’s Kitchen offers a plethora of thalis centered on various Ao Naga specialties. I wanted to eat them all but had to choose. I went with the thali centered on smoked pork braised with anishi (made with a paste of fermented taro leaves that is shaped into disks and then smoked). Naga smoked pork is great and anishi is great with pretty much anything but together they are heaven. And so Farmer’s Kitchen’s version proved to be. Also on the thali were various veg preps and also rosep, the classic Naga accompaniment made with various boiled ingredients—from eggplant to bitter gourd to fermented fish. This last has been an acquired taste for me but after a few years of regular visits to Humayunpur, I now cannot get enough of it.
That thali would have been enough food for any reasonable person but I am not a reasonable person. I had asked if it would be possible to get half portions of two different pork dishes on the thali. Other restaurants in the area have often been only too happy to do this but, of course, it’s not something I expect. And so when they very reasonably said they do not offer that option I just got an a la carte order of the smoked pork with bamboo shoot extract alongside the thali. This was bloody good as well.
For a look at the restaurant and everything I ate, launch the slideshow below. Scroll down to see how much the meal cost and to see what’s coming next.
Service was a little stilted. The young woman in the front of the house and I did not have very much language in common and so not much information was forthcoming in response to my questions about the menu or the various components of the thali. But you can’t go very wrong by just selecting a thali at random and eating it. That is, unless you are a vegetarian. The only vegetarian option here is the plain “eco thali”, which does not include a meaty centerpiece; you would, however, have to ask them to leave out the rosep as that almost certainly contains dried/fermented fish.
Cost? Even with my excessive order of the second pork dish, the total came to just Rs. 680 or just about $7 at the current exchange rate. That’s for a truly outlandish amount of food—I did not eat dinner that night. I would highly recommend Farmer’s Kitchen if you’re looking for Naga food in Humayunpur (and are not vegetarian).
Alright, what’s coming next week? A booze review will go up in just a few hours. On Tuesday there’ll be another report from my fast-shrinking India backlog. On Wednesday I will have a report on dinner eaten this weekend at Demi in Minneapolis. Later in the week, there’ll be more from Seoul.