Sharing ethnic food stories from Belgium!
Morung Express News
Dimapur | July 6
For the past week, the media has been buzzing about how a Naga girl is running a popular food catering truck in Belgium which serves Indian and authentic Naga cuisine. An orange-coloured food truck with “Lulu’s Tribal Kitchen” emblazoned on it has been gathering attention not only in the towns of Belgium but in smaller towns far away at her native place.
Applauding her wonderful initiative to popularize the ethnic dishes of the Northeast region in the food map of the world, there has been much request to cover her story with people curious to know more about her.
Conveying this message to Lulu Pheiga Gangmei, she reacted, “I feel happy to see that people are coming together as one to support someone like me who lives so far away from home. It’s awesome and I’m speechless!
Lulu is from the Rongmei Naga tribe, and was born and raised in Imphal. She moved to Belgium four years ago after her marriage and soon after opened the food truck after taking a one year diploma in hotel school.
She explained, “We started our business two years ago. We serve mostly Naga food and a bit of Indian favourites like the Butter Chicken. We serve signature Naga dishes like smoked pork with bamboo, axone-tomato chutney, pumpkin curry, anishi, raja mircha. There is also the Naga thali with little portions of everything.”
She admits that the beginning was difficult as Naga cuisine is a new concept in Belgium and people are not accustomed to eating fats or bones. “But those things are what Nagas cuisine is made of so I had a bit of a struggle to find a way to come in between. Now, I use boneless meat but fats are still going in my pot and they love it,” she adds mischievously.
She also confidently states that once people had a taste of her food they always come back hundred percent. It’s the first step that is a bit difficult but I understand because it’s a completely different taste than the Indian food they know so a bit of explanation and a smile goes the long way.
Her food truck simply stands out from the rest because her concept is build around the theme “Back to the Roots” which Lulu explained, “We put that because my husband says our cooking method (Naga ethnic style) is very simple but the outcome is really delicious. Here the cooking methods and the cooking machines are so advanced that the basics are disappearing and we want to try the simple Naga cooking- cooking with love. That’s all the ingredients you need.”
And her efforts have been received with much appreciation. For Lulu, the best part is when people wait for an hour in line to eat from her food truck. She gives credit to her husband for the success of the food truck. “It’s all his idea,” she says proudly. “My husband claims that behind every successful woman is also a man,” Lulu says in jest.
“We were at the Hornbill Festival last year. We plan to bring tourists this year so let’s see how it goes. But our goal is to promote Northeast to the outside world through food and tourism. Our Northeast is a jewel and I’m so proud of it,” says this inspiring Naga.
