Kanishka in the heart of Mayfair focusses on the unexplored cuisine from the so called ‘Sister States’ of India – in the North East which are – Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura.
It has a food culture that is as vibrant as its heritage and as beautiful as its people. From lanes packed with locals carts serving speciality dishes, to rows of eateries that overflow onto roads, the streets of North East India are a gastronomic kaleidoscope. The North East region offers a mixed culture of Hinduism, Christianity, Islam and Buddhism which clearly reflects in the cuisine. Sumptuous North East dishes come with a combination of a humble approach and a complex melange of flavours. There is less use of spices and oils in this region, compared to rest of India.
Cooking methods like steaming, boiling, grilling, curing and preserving are commonly used. Rice is a staple food and chilli is the hero ingredient, in fact, one of the hottest chillies in the world comes from this part. North East cuisine is also hugely influenced by the bordering countries of China, Nepal, Myanmar and Bangladesh, therefore, use of soy sauce, mustard oil, bamboo shoots, fermented vegetables and pickled fish is common.