Swati's Post

Nagaland’s cuisine is as rare as it gets, so kudos to @sheratonhyderabad for attempting to mainstream it with its ongoing pop up Naga Culinary Trail at its lobby level restaurant Feast for both lunch & dinner (ends on December 14th). The festival is curated by Chef Joel Basumatari, one of the leading voices popularising Naga cuisine pan India. I loved the spicy, tangy and smoked flavours of the Naga dishes we sampled, such as the chicken/pork skewers marinaded in a Naga spice blend (incidentally chef has his own brand of Naga spices & condiments) and served with a fresh zesty Mustard Green & Mandarin salad and roasted, smoked chilli garlic sauce. The highlight for me was the main course Mejenga Fried Rice (mejenga leaves from the Naga Sichuan pepper), served with an Angami Tribe speciality called Kenie Thevu Gacha , chicken cooked with Perilla (from the mint family) and the most delicious Tree Tomato chutney. This was so addictive, spicy, tangy and flavorful that I found myself greedily ordering another bowl ! 😆 The dessert was a work of art: (small batch Nagaland Mori )Coffee Pannacotta with a Lakadong turmeric tuille (shaped as a dainty leaf) and macerated strawberries.Bravo 🤩 @chef_joel_basumatari While a couple of my Co diners were mentioning ths lack of fermented ingredients in the spread (though fermented bamboo shoots and taro Patis etc were part of the ingredients table which chef elaborately explained), I did not frankly miss the strong fermented aftertaste , as it’s a cultivated taste. Chef Joel concedes that his Naga offerings are often tweaked to suit local palates & I personally think that’s a good strategy! Discerning diners should just dive in, the Naga pop up is on for lunch/dinnet until this Sunday, the 14th !

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This post was published on 12th December, 2025 by Swati on her Instagram handle "@sucharita_swati (Swati Sucharita)". Swati has total 3.8K followers on Instagram and has a total of 1.1K post.This post has received 67 Likes which are greater than the average likes that Swati gets. Swati receives an average engagement rate of 2.08% per post on Instagram. This post has received 6 comments which are lower than the average comments that Swati gets. Overall the engagement rate for this post was lower than the average for the profile.