As the mercury rises it becomes a difficult task to go to the Delhi market, we stumble upon a new North-East food store to satisfy our appetite for pork and chillies. Less than a month old, the Bamboo Shoot Kitchen is housed in the bylane of Gupta Market in Lajpat Nagar and serves Naga, Manipuri and Assamese food.
The restaurant is small, with a narrow corridor lined with white on one side and bamboo shoot patterns on the other. Krun from Brian Adams and the Beatles speaker. Owner Synthing is friendly and happy to guide us through the menu which is as small and trim as many places, although we have been told that there will soon be more food with a starter and a dessert section. At its current stage, the menu is divided according to meat and geography – previously a choice of chicken, pork, buffalo and fish, followed by a selection of vegetarian offers from the three states.
Meat lovers have a choice between smoked meat, bamboo shoot meat and fish curry cooked in Manipuri and Assamese style, as well as traditional Naga food featuring axon (fried soybean paste cooked meat) and anish (fermented yam leaves). For those who prefer green pastures, apart from livestock, they can choose from other foods like kangshoi (a seasonal vegetable stew in Manipur), aloo pitika (an Assamese version of mashed potatoes) and naga mixed vegetable dishes. The mixture includes galho, a kind of non-vegetarian porridge, which is available in pork and buffalo versions, and a highly reasonable king chili chutney. The dishes are all pocket-friendly, perhaps at the end of the month making it a godsend for students, young professionals and adults.
Since winter is coming to an end soon, we decided to overload one final protein – to serve with dried fried pork, Manipuri chicken curry and buffalo with bamboo shoots, steamed rice and king chili chutney.
The pork comes first, its pieces with an impeccable layer of melted fat and crispy meat, fried in plenty of coconut oil and almost uncomfortable, especially when dipped in chutney (sometimes lightly), a rather horrible thing is served coquettishly. In a clear glass bell jar.
Surprisingly (for us anyway) it’s a chicken stand-out dish – a homemade style curry, full of its thin gravy smack flavor and sprinkled with paper-thin, lightly caramelized onion slices and desiccated tomatoes – and since our chicken raises questions There’s no dessert yet, so we’re more than happy to eat the complimentary Black Tea, Fick.
Meals for two: Rs. 400 (inclusive of tax,
Without alcohol)
Address: 4/8, Gupta Market, Lajpat Nagar IV
Contact: 9560341088
