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The wife of Nagaland’s chief minister, Kaisa Rio, seen here fourth from right, with her colleagues from the NWVA, at their food stall.[/caption]
Dimapur, Dec. 4 (EMN): It is food and coffee, of course. Hot coffee and steaming food are stemming the cold at Kisama village, where the Hornbill Festival is on.
For one, Nagaland Coffee is a coffee stall being promoted by the department of Land Resources. According to a Tuesday bulletin from the government information agency DIPR, the ‘main purpose of setting up the Nagaland Coffee stall at Kisama during the Hornbill Festival was to promote coffee produced in the state. Besides promoting it, the idea is to encourage and help young entrepreneurs ‘develop a sense of responsibility in this fast changing world,’ the DIPR explained.
The coffee that is being served at the stall is brought from Wokha, Zunheboto, Mon and Mokokchung districts. Nagaland Coffee is presently exporting to South Africa, Dubai and Bahrain, the DIPR stated.
The stall is managed by Kajukho Arucho, Vivito Yeptho and Dr. Peter Vermeulen from South Africa. A variety of coffee namely espresso, cappuccino, latte, Americano, flat white and scotch espresso can be had there.
Nagaland Women Voluntary Association
If there is coffee, food can’t be far behind. The Nagaland Women Voluntary Association is running a food stall at Kisama village to warm up hungry tummies attending the ten-day festival. The stall offers buffet for both vegetarian and non-vegetarian, the DIPR stated.
The association comprises wives of legislators, and female government officers. Funds from the profits are being used for charity work in the state especially during Independence Day and Republic Day, the DIPR stated.
Vegans still looking for greens
From the Eastern Mirror Desk:
They say Nagas will feast on anything that moves. Their ancestors were pastoral hunters, and there are descendents who are natural at it; their love for hunting brings delight and no festivity is wholesome without meat.
But even as some people are turning to veganism and using organic produce, vegan tourists visiting the Hornbill Festival might be getting themselves in hot soup. The reason: many of the food stalls in Dimapur and Kohima serve non-vegetarian meals.
Eastern Mirror spoke to a few vegan tourists at Kisama to get insights into how they were coping with their daily meals. Marcia from Portugal, an avid traveller and a vegetarian, said she had expected Nagaland to have the best organic vegetarian food items on sale.
“I heard the soil is so fertile and there are many varieties of vegetables and fruits produced here then how come we don’t see much of those being sold at Hornbill stalls,” she wondered.
Likewise, Anna from Spain expressed shock that local produce by local farmers weren’t being encouraged at Hornbill. “I am currently putting up at a home stay and we are allowed to cook if we like. Of course, I can buy from the market but Hornbill is where tourists can easily access these fresh produce from the farmers,” she said. There were fewer varieties and sale of organic vegetables though.
While there are people who like to gorge on an array of non-vegetarian food from beef to pork, chicken to silk worm etc., vegan tourists can be seen munching mostly on side dishes such as cold salad to beat the chill.
Johnny, no surname given, is also a tourist, from Ireland. He felt that having more vegetarian food stalls should be a priority too, especially for foreigners and tourists from mainland India. Many Indians can be “way more vegetarian” than most foreigners.
“I have met many people from India, some Gujaratis (who) are pure vegetarians and I felt for them as they wandered from stall to stall looking for a bite to fill their tummy,” he said.
