Savoring Northeast India

Travel reveals a place through many senses, but none is as intimate as taste. In the lush, rain-kissed hills and misty valleys of Northeast India, the cuisine speaks of forests and rivers, of ancient traditions and quiet kitchens. Every meal is a story. Every sip of tea, a moment of calm reflection. Here, to eat is to understand.

For the discerning traveler, Northeast India offers a rare culinary landscape, shaped by over 200 ethnic communities and a deep reverence for the land. It’s not food fashioned for hotels or tweaked for global palates. It’s food rooted in season, ritual, and ancestral wisdom — a true gastronomic journey into India’s untouched frontier

A World of Flavors Unknown

Unlike the spice-laden gravies of the north or the coconut-rich stews of the south, the food of the Northeast is delicate yet bold — filled with smoke, fermentation, and foraged greens. You won’t find butter chicken here. But you will discover:

Smoked pork with bamboo shoots in Nagaland — earthy, tender, and fired over open wood Eromba in Manipur — a warm, mashed blend of vegetables, chilies, and fermented fish Jadoh in Meghalaya — fragrant red rice with pork, paired with pickled bamboo Pika Pila in Arunachal — a fiery tribal pickle that awakens everything it touches Steaming Koat Pitha — banana rice fritters fried crisp in Mizoram's kitchens In these dishes, the forest is never far. Neither is the story behind them.

Tea: The Soul of Assam

No culinary journey in the region is complete without a pause in Assam’s storied tea estates, where mist weaves between rows of emerald leaves and history lingers in every cup.

Spend your days exploring a working plantation, walking with planters at dawn, and learning how the perfect second flush is plucked. And in the late afternoons, retreat to a colonial-era tea bungalow, where chandeliers, polished wood, and verandahs whisper of another time.

Here, you won’t just drink tea — you’ll understand its politics, its people, its rituals.

Explore our Assam Tea Experience

Meals as Moments

When you travel with Purvi Discovery, food isn’t an afterthought. It’s a central part of the journey. Think private cooking lessons with tribal chefs, open-air dinners beneath the stars, foraging walks with local women, and stories told around hearths as sticky rice steams in banana leaves.

Each meal is an invitation. To sit. To share. To listen.

You may find yourself in a riverside village kitchen, watching rice beer brew in earthen pots. Or with a monastery chef in Tawang, folding momos while monks chant nearby. These aren’t cooking classes — they’re windows into lives.

Slow Travel, One Bite at a Time

The joy of culinary travel is not just in what you eat, but how slowly you do it. And nowhere rewards slowness like Northeast India.

Here, you eat what grows close. You taste what was gathered that morning. You remember that food is meant to be nourishing, not complicated. And through it, you connect — not just to the place, but to the people.

Who This Is For

Curious eaters and culinary explorers Tea aficionados and culture lovers

Travelers seeking experiences beyond restaurants and resorts

Story-driven travelers looking for authentic, hands-on encounters

Anyone who believes that a meal is the most powerful form of storytelling

Come Hungry for More Than Just Food

In Northeast India, food is not just about flavor — it’s about belonging. It’s about the hands that prepare it, the land that provides it, and the rituals that preserve it.

To savor this region is to savor life itself — slowly, respectfully, and with wonder.

To savor this region is to savor life itself — slowly, respectfully, and with wonder.