Nagaland. This state is situated in the extreme North Eastern part f India.The people of this state are called Nagas and previously as Nakas meaning people with pierced noses. There are 16 main tribes that inhabit this region along with several smaller tribal clans.There are around 20 dialects!!Nagaland is largely a mountainous region and rich in fauna and flora.
Since there are so many tribes and sub-tribes,the cuisine of these tribes are distinct and yet some overlap each other and still have some delicacies that are specific to a particular tribe!
The naga cuisine uses any thing and everything in their cooking! And hence it was really difficult to locate an exclusive vegetarian dish for this state. I read that they cook dogs, worms, insects and also use pork and other meats.
A Naga meal would contain rice,which is the staple, along with some meat preparation / bamboo preparation, boiled vegetables and spicy chili sauce.
Their cuisine though bland often have an accompaniment of some sort of spicy sauce that lightens up the meal.
The Nagas preserve their food through smoking or fermentation.
Meat is so much a part of their life style that they associate a curative property with each type of meat – like,dog’s meat cures pneumonia, bee larve, snails heal skin and bones etc. Even now, these are followed.
Naga cuisine has somehow not changed due to modernization and still retains all the traditional and cultural aspects of their cuisine!!
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