Finding the ideal place to get lunch may be difficult for many individuals. It has a lot to do with eating the wrong things, especially if you have a picky palate. Not though, not with AKIIA in town!
The name of the five-person group AKIIA was derived from the first letters of the members’ names: Akumien, Kitty, Imnain, Imkongchi, and Aosen.
AKIIA started off as a closet pantry in 2019 amid the traumatic Lockdown-Unlock periods that followed, but when they realized the changing workplace and the continuous online booking revolution that had not spared the eating culture of Mokokchung town, AKIIA evolved beautifully.
AKIIA began as a “well-wishers only” group that catered to local orders only. However, as word of the good, delectable food spread faster than COVID, AKIIA was forced to expand not only its menu to include both local Naga cuisine and other non-local entrées, but also its reach to accommodate the needs of birthdays, weddings, meetings, take-out orders, and even home delivery. Covid-19 was a blessing in disguise for these five stunning young women, who filled the need left by the absence of delightful delicacies.
Every dish served at AKIIA follows a simple recipe for high-quality food that is prepared with passion and a hint of affection derived from the childhood friendship that each member of the group observes. Not to mention, there is always a satisfying quantity that wins the hearts of food lovers with every order.
AKIIA had many difficulties prior to the pandemic, but the joy and fulfillment bestowed by the well wishers have provided the hope and fervor to go forward even farther. AKIIA aspires to fulfill this aim of appeasing everyone’s appetite.
They granted Mokokchung Times a quick interview:
MTimes: Hey AKIIA, I must say that your cuisine photographs well. How much work goes into making anything appear that good?
AKIIA: First of all, thank you very much for the compliments. And yes, we do thrive on the strength of good photography as it is important to make sure that the quality of our food photography meets the standards that our customers expect. We mostly shoot our food from our own simple smartphones. Talking about our efforts, even though we are not professional photographers, we try to emphasize the aesthetic beauty of our food through plating, choosing the right surface for the shoot, good lighting, editing and creativity as well. Out of the lot, we feel plating the food is arguably the most important aspect when it comes to photographing our food and creating the idea that the food being photographed is just as juicy and mouth-watering as it is in reality.
MTimes: There are five of you in the group. Please tell us a little bit about each of the five of you and what you do.
AKIIA: Yes, we are a group of five bosom besties embracing our friendship for more than 25 years now.
If we are to introduce ourselves, we are Akumien, Kitty, Imnain, Imkongchi and Aosen. As cliché as it may sound, AKIIA basically is the initials or say the first letter of our names. And yes, that’s how we came up with the name of our group.
Career wise, all five of us are in the teaching profession. Three of us are posted in Mokokchung and one in Kohima and one of our members is currently preparing for competitive exams.
As mentioned, it is a great challenge and tiring as well to serve people and to meet the needs of the people but what makes The AKIIA grow better and fonder as a group is the fact that the five of us joyfully work together and as such it is a great excuse for all of us to catch up on one another and cook together in spite of our never ending job duties.
MTimes: Walk us to the day you all decided ‘this is what we should do’. How was the response from your first customers?
AKIIA: Reminiscing our first-ever ‘food delivery’ service, it was way back in the year 2019, 27th April to be more specific, when it all started. Initially, it was a One-Day home delivery service when we delivered our food packages to more than 200 households. Oblivious of how our customers would react to our food, it was undoubtedly a whole lot of sweat and pain and a great challenge, yet the feedback and the responses were flowing in positively from all the customers. We were overwhelmed and at the same time so encouraged and humbled. In our own little bubble, it was unbelievably a huge success. Then and there, we became more confident and decided to further expand our vision of serving people part-time when the need demands.
MTimes: Do you all currently view AKIIA as a hobby or do you all have plans to move the project forward?
AKIIA: Indeed we are hoping that our future has unlimited potential as far as The AKIIA is concerned. Our course of action as of now is to have more items added to the menu though that will take some time. What stands as a challenge for us, is the busy schedule that we, mostly as teachers, are facing, inhibiting us to attend full-time.
We cannot say it as a hobby per se but it’s rather a passion for cooking that thrives us all to accept orders when necessitated. When will this passion become a profession, only time and space will decide.
MTimes: What special menu does AKIIA offer? How can we place an order?
AKIIA: All the food items in The AKIIA’s menu are special to us; however, our special whole roasted chicken is our best-seller. Customers have been raving about it since day one. The AKIIA’s roasted chicken is made with utmost passion using a total of 31 ingredients that goes into the marination. Another starrer is the Thai Deep Fried Chicken which takes the gastronomer into the strong aromatic realm of Thai cuisine.
For orders, you can call us on the number 8132849529 or DM us at our Instagram handle: @the_akiia