Rice Beer and Smoked Pork - A Naga Meal

This is a post I should have published a long time ago. Unfortunately, it remained in my drafts folder because I never quite finished it. So it’s safe to say this is a major throwback...

It’s about a meal I had last year at a restaurant called Zingron, which serves Naga cuisine, right here in Koramangala.

Today I saw a friend’s Instagram post about Chhaang, a Sikkimese fermented finger millet drink, which sparked conversation with a home-brewer friend about traditional fermented beers. I mentioned having tried Naga rice beer at Zingron. And when I frantically looked for the post to find the name of the drink, I realised I'd not published it! So, here it is.

Zingron is a restaurant in Koramangala that serves traditional cuisine of Nagaland. Naga cuisine is known to be very spicy and aromatic, with the use of herbs and the deadly Naga King Chili. A typical Naga meal is made up of a meat dish, a boiled or steamed vegetable dish, rice, and spicy chutney. Smoked meats are widely consumed, and the meat is traditionally smoked at home by hanging it in the kitchen above the cooking fire.

I was excited to dine here, because the foods of the Northeastern states of India are really under-represented in most other parts of India.

A group of us students went as part of SWAD's Khoj project, to explore a new cuisine

Zingron gets a lot of their specialty produce and ingredients from Nagaland to maintain authenticity. A lot of their diners are from the Northeast, coming to enjoy familiar flavours. But the restaurant also serves a diverse range of other guests who are curious to explore a new cuisine.

We had organized this dinner outing through SWAD’s Khoj initiative to explore a new cuisine, so the restaurant offered us a student price for a fixed menu with a chicken or pork option. The menu:

Smoked Pork meal: Served with steamed vegetables, Naga pork chilly, pork ribs, pork gravy, dry hot ginger beef/chicken, eronba and spicy rice;

OR

Smoked Chicken meal: Served with steamed vegetables, Naga chicken chilly, chicken gravy, wings/drumstick fry, dry hot ginger chicken, eronba and spicy rice.

As we were being served the meal, the hostess explained to us the various elements on our plates, and answered some of our questions.

The friendly hostess patiently answered our questions

The pork meal, loaded with new flavours

Being the carnivore I am, I had the pork meal. Needless to say, it was delicious. I got a taste of the typical flavours of Naga seasoning and smoked meats (something I tasted again later, when I tried some spicy pickled insects form Nagaland – read about that here). The meal also included eronba, as mentioned above, which is a Manipuri fermented fish chutney. 

The whole meal thoroughly intrigued my palate with flavours unlike any I had ever eaten before.

Tied my hair back and got down to business!

With our food we were also served, 'Chathur', which is fermented rice beer (the drink that came up in conversation and sparked the eventual completion of this post today!)  It is milky white with an earthy flavour, from being fermented in an earthen pot. It produces a mild tingle on the tongue from the fermentation, and a subtle lingering sweetness.

Chathur -- milky, fermented rice beer, served in a black clay glass

With my current curiosity about craft beers and beer-like brews, and after the conversation with my friend about this rice beer, I really want to go back and taste the Chathur again. After all, it has been almost a year since I last tried it!