Naga Food at Hornbill Festival: What to Eat and Ask

The Hornbill Festival poster usually shows warriors, headdresses, log drums and dancers. It rarely shows a plate of food. Yet for many visitors the strongest memory of Nagaland is not a dance but a taste: the sharp, smoky, fermented, fiercely hot flavours of Naga cooking, which are unlike anything else in India.

This is a guide to eating well during the festival, both at Kisama and away from it, and to the dishes and ingredients that rarely make it onto the poster.

The ingredients that define Naga food

Naga cuisine varies a great deal between tribes and between villages, so treat every generalisation here as a starting point for conversation rather than a rule. Still, a few ingredients turn up again and again.

Smoked meat, especially pork, is central. Meat is traditionally hung above the kitchen hearth for days or weeks, where it slowly dries and takes on the smoke. It is then cooked with other ingredients, often in a broth or a dry fry.

Fermented soybean, widely known as axone or akhuni, has a powerful aroma that surprises many visitors. It is used as a flavouring for pork, fish and vegetables, and it gives many dishes a deep, savoury character.

Bamboo shoot appears fresh, dried and fermented. Fermented bamboo shoot adds sourness and an earthy tang that is one of the signature notes of the cuisine.

Chilli matters. The king chilli, known in Nagaland as raja mircha, is among the hottest chillies in the world and carries a Geographical Indication tag. It is used in chutneys and cooking, often sparingly. Many dishes are fiery, but not every dish is chilli-hot, and a good host will tell you which is which.

Then there are the herbs and leaves: wild greens, local basil-like herbs, the leaves of plants whose names may only exist in a particular tribal language. Rice, often a sticky or red variety, is the staple that holds every meal together.

Eating at Kisama

At the Naga Heritage Village, many tribal morungs run food stalls during the festival. This is the easiest place to try a range of dishes in a single day, and the morung setting makes it more than a food court: you are often eating food cooked by members of the community whose house you are standing in.

Walk the whole circuit before you order. Look at what people are eating, ask what is in each pot and how hot it is, and choose a couple of dishes from different morungs rather than filling up at the first stall. Pork with bamboo shoot, pork with axone, smoked meat dishes, boiled vegetables and chutneys are common. Some stalls serve dishes with insects or larvae in season; try them if you are curious and ask how they were prepared.

Rice beer and other traditional drinks have long been part of community life in many Naga traditions and have been sold in some form at the festival in past years, despite the wider debates around alcohol in the state. Rules and practices change, so do not assume anything; if you are offered a traditional drink, ask what it is and drink modestly.

Payment is often in cash. Small notes help.

Eating in Kohima

Kohima has restaurants serving Naga food as well as North Indian, Chinese-influenced and continental dishes. We are not naming specific restaurants here because they change often, and festival week stretches every kitchen in town. Ask your host or guide where they would eat, and you will usually be sent somewhere better than any listing.

Look for places where families eat at lunchtime. A simple thali-style meal of rice, a meat dish, a vegetable, a chutney and broth is often the best value and the most honest introduction to the cuisine.

The local market, too, is worth a visit for the ingredients alone, and many visitors take home dried chillies or fermented bamboo shoot. Check airline and household rules before you pack anything pungent.

Eating in a home

If you spend a night in a village homestay, which we strongly recommend, you will likely eat the most memorable meal of your trip there. Home food in Nagaland is seasonal and simple: rice, a meat dish if the household is serving one, boiled greens, a chutney, maybe a dried fish preparation. The quality of the smoke on the meat, the freshness of the greens and the balance of the chutney tell you a lot about the family’s kitchen.

Eat what you are offered, take a small portion first and ask before adding chilli. Compliment the cook. If you have dietary restrictions, tell your host when you book, not at the table.

For vegetarians

Naga cuisine is meat-heavy, but vegetarians do not have to go hungry. Rice, boiled or stir-fried vegetables, lentil dishes, potatoes, wild greens and chutneys are widely available. Be aware that many dishes, including some that look vegetarian, may use meat stock, dried fish or fermented ingredients that include animal products. Ask clearly and simply. A sentence like “no meat, no fish, no meat broth” goes further than the word “vegetarian”.

For the cautious stomach

The cuisine is intense, but it is not dangerous if you take ordinary care. Eat freshly cooked food, drink bottled or properly boiled water, and introduce fermented and very hot dishes gradually. Carry any medicines you usually rely on, and consider a simple oral rehydration pack. December is a dry, cool month, which helps, but the change in diet and the cold can still tire you.

Food as a way in

Food is often the easiest door into a culture, and that is especially true here. Asking a cook how a dish is made, or what a herb is called, starts conversations that a question about a costume never will. People in Nagaland are generally proud of their cuisine and happy to explain it to anyone who shows real interest.

So when you are at Kisama, by all means watch the dancers and the warriors on the poster. But make sure you also sit down at a morung’s kitchen, eat slowly and ask questions. That is where a lot of the festival really happens.