CHENNAI: Years ago, Marlon and Feli met at a city-based mall, where he was a general manager and she was working at a skincare brand counter. He would deliberately stop by her counter during his rounds, and she would eagerly demonstrate how to use the products. Thus began their love story. The Goan man and the Mizo woman went on to marry, start a family and later build a restaurant around the food Feli grew up eating.
The couple’s labour of love, Feli’s Kitchen, recently opened in Velachery. They serve a variety of northeastern cuisines, with a focus on Mizo flavours, hoping to introduce Chennaiites to cuisines they feel deserve greater familiarity.
Initially, the couple cooked meals from home for students and staff at IIT Madras. “We started by making meals for just a few people at the institution. But within a year and a half, we had around 750 steady customers,” says Marlon. The response inspired the couple to open a physical space.
A cosy space, the restaurant feels lived-in. There’s a guitar leaning against a wall, wind chimes swaying in the breeze, books tucked into corners, and photographs of customers, as well as the couple’s families and their staff, on the walls. A few tables away, plates of pork, rice and vegetables are being polished off, while the smell of something slow-cooked lingers in the air.
As the dishes made their way to our table, we began with the mango sticky rice. Cooked with coconut milk and sugar, the dessert is cooled before being topped with coconut cream, condensed milk and cubes of mango. The rice itself was soft and mildly sweet, with the coconut flavour coming through gently without overpowering the fruit. “We use seasonal Neelam mango for its aroma, while roasted sesame seeds add a slight nuttiness. My tip is to mix the coconut cream into the rice, so that every spoonful carries the flavour instead of leaving the cream only on top,” says Feli, who previously worked as a chef in a hotel.
Next, we sampled their pork curry, where the meat was cooked with mustard leaves procured directly from Mizoram, along with fresh kimchi and white cilantro. Instead of corn flour, they use potatoes and onions to thicken the gravy, explains Feli. The smoked pork curry brought another distinctly Northeastern flavour to the table. It was cooked with dry mushrooms, akhuni (fermented soybean), white cilantro, fresh kimchi, tomatoes and potato, with the fermented soybean adding depth. The Nampi pork chilli fry is where the heat picked up - with the pork cooked first and then stir-fried with fish sauce, a little soy sauce and chilli flakes. “A customer suggested replacing green chilli with chilli flakes would make this dish even better, and then this version became our fast-selling dish,” reveals Feli.
The roasted beef cubes were the highlight. Despite its name, the beef wasn’t deep-fried but slowcooked for nearly three hours with very little red chilli powder, turmeric and salt, until the meat turned soft and tender rather than chewy. “The long cooking allows the flavour of the beef to remain at the centre,” Feli explains.
The ramen was light, topped with mushrooms, carrots and beans, with a non-vegetarian option available too. Sesame seeds, green onions and finely sliced cabbage added texture, while the noodles were tossed with oil, onions and masala, making it a warm and savoury dish.
The vegetarian thali offered a true taste of the homely side of Feli’s cooking. It featured a simple potato fry, a broccoli and mushroom sauté, and akhuni with white cilantro. There was also eromba, a spicy mashed potato preparation made with banana blossom and fresh kimchi from Mizoram. “The dal curry, made with masoor and toor dal, comes from my sister-in-law Anitha’s recipe, while the bhindi fry is inspired by South Indian cooking but with less masala,” adds Feli.
What ties the meal together is that none of the dishes seems to be trying too hard. The flavours are built around ingredients that Feli knows and understands, including pork, fermented soybean, herbs, chillies, vegetables and rice, with cooking methods that keep the food close to its roots. For Feli, cooking is not just about getting the ingredients right, but about putting a little bit of yourself into what you make. “Food I love, I can cook. Food I don’t love, I can’t cook. Food is all about heart,” she says.
And perhaps that is what makes Feli’s Kitchen stand out. You do not simply leave having tried Northeastern food; you leave having tasted a little of Feli’s home, her memories and the way she believes food should be cooked, with heart.