Naga Chicken, Anyone? Get Authentic North-Eastern Cuisine From This Oshiwara Joint

We checked out the newly-opened Spicy North East Kitchen in Oshiwara run by an Itanagar native and can confirm, it’s as authentic as it gets.

Spicy North East Kitchen isn’t that old, it only found itself a tiny space in Oshiwara six months back. Started off by Rekha Darnal, who hails from the capital city of Arunachal, Itanagar, set it up as a tiny stall outside.

Rekha tells us, the idea is to give Mumbaikars a taste of the North East which is lacking in this melting pot of a city. We also see a few regular customers here, who come here often to gorge on this niche cuisine. Rekha can be found serving, and even cooking food here – so do have a chat with her. If you want to spice up the food, tell her and she’ll do it.

The menu is fairly simple, and the eatery is by all means even simpler. Nothing too grand, they have a few tables set for people who love coming here often to have it all hot.

The menu has a special North Eastern section which boasts of Naga chicken, boiled chicken with bamboo sticks, boil fish, veggie boil soup, and other chicken gravy. The North Eastern dishes are absolutely bang on. The spices have been sourced from Arunachal and all the recipes are Rekha’s. For noodles, we decided to try out North East style noodles – and we were so delighted. The noodles are spiced just about right, and thinner than the usual ones.

For gravy, we picked boiled chicken with bamboo sticks. It had such subtle flavours with a little bit of masala and oil {as the chicken has been boiled well}. Then there’s a garlic flavour that dominates the gravy but doesn’t necessarily take away from it. The bamboo sticks went really well with the dish, as they were crunchy on the outside and pulpy on the inside.

Lastly, they do amazing momos. They have a choice between steamed momos and fried momos – and we went for the fried one. Now now, if you’re looking truly authentic momos, this is the place for you.

It’s not easy to replicate the North Eastern cuisine as it differs so much in terms of flavours and style of cooking. The spices are subtle, less oil and a lot more of boiled meat and veggies.

We suggest heading out to Spicy North East Kitchen for a wholesome meal, or you can even order in. Do be weary, as they are a tiny joint, the orders easily take up to 30-45 minutes as it’s all cooked on order.

Since it’s a tiny eatery, they do more of delivery and are open until 4 am. That’s right – they will serve these delish dishes until late at night.