Finding Northeast India in Bengaluru: A Food Walk and Dinner in Kalyan Nagar

In north-eastern Bengaluru, the neighbourhood of Kalyan Nagar has long acted as a bridge to Northeast India. Home to not only migrants from the Northeastern states but also the Nepali community from Sikkim and Darjeeling, multicoloured row houses dotting the streets serve up regional home-style food from Manipur, Mizoram, and Nagaland.

Having interviewed various residents and businesses in Kalyan Nagar as part of the India Foundation for the Arts’ Project 560, Prithiraj Borah, assistant professor of sociology at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, shares: 

“It seemed very interesting to me. It isn’t spread out or stressful like Delhi or Mumbai, but rather small and tightly-knit together. […]. Kalyan Nagar immediately comes across as a cosmopolitan, secular space where food taboos—even the selling of beef or pork—aren’t maintained too strictly.”

The walk began in the later hours of the afternoon, with Prithiraj taking the participants through the history of how the Manipuris, Mizos, and Nagas have made Kalyan Nagar their home in the past two decades. He mentions that the gradual increase of the diasporic community, especially in the past few years, has led to the rise of multiple grocery stores and kitchens across the area.  

As the evening progressed, the group wound through narrow lanes, dodging traffic, and stopping at hole-in-the-wall kitchens for shinju, a spicy and crunchy Meitei snack, freshly-fried handmade pork sausages, and steaming hot egg pakoras. The conversation between bites and burning fingers traversed new flavours, old memories, and ideas of migration and acceptance.   

The walk concluded with the group settling into Naga Relish, a small restaurant, for an intimate dinner where they tried Naga dishes like smoked pork stew, buff chilli, perilla curry, axone chutney, purple rice, and forbidden black rice along with some rice beer. Light laughter, lingering conversations, and deeper questions on belonging and co-existence meant the night ended on a fulfilling note.