There is no greater joy than tucking into a comfort meal you did not have to cook. If that meal happens to be Assamese, and you are in Hyderabad, it hits differently. That is what happened to me when a common friend 鈥 also a distant cousin 鈥 shared a social media page with the message: 鈥淭his will remind you of home.鈥
Aakhol, meaning kitchen in Assamese, is a cloud kitchen run out of Kokapet by Alpaxhi Kashyap who shited to Hyderabad from Delhi in 2019. She runs the cloud kitchen along with her nanny-turned-co-cook, Jinti Rajbongshi. Its limited yet thoughtful menu offers far more than just alu pitika (mashed potatoes) and pork 鈥 defying the internet stereotype that Assam runs on those two ingredients alone.
The idea for Aakhol was born over many shared meals, as Alpaxhi and Jinti recreated the flavours of home with whatever ingredients they could find locally. Buoyed by the response from their community, they launched Aakhol in April. To prepare for the transition from home-cooking to a larger kitchen operation, Jinti briefly trained at Alpaxhi鈥檚 family resort back in Assam.
Now fully operational and delivering via online platforms, Aakhol offers seasonal menus when ingredients can be sourced from Assam 鈥 leafy greens like fiddlehead fern, maan dhonia (sawtooth coriander), ou tenga (elephant apple), and kosu thur (colocasia stalks). Their regular thali includes a sweet, a dal, a fritter, veg and non-veg curries 鈥 often featuring daang bodi (yardlong beans) and potatoes. Having family in Assam helps her in sourcing. ingredients are brought when anyone is visiting her.
Having studied and lived in Delhi after her college life, Alpaxhi felt Hyderabad lacked a place that served Assamese cuisine.
Standout dishes include bora tenga (dal dumplings in sour gravy), Assamese-style fish and pork curries, and chicken cooked in regional styles. I was especially taken by the fish curry with bamboo shoot 鈥 more Naga than Assamese, but a welcome taste from the Northeast nonetheless. Their tomato fish curry and its vegetarian counterpart with fried lentil dumplings were also excellent. Other highlights were the banana flower stir fry and khar.
The food is distinctly homely: no slicks of oil, no over-spiced gravies. Instead, there is a gentle heat from green chillies or pepper, and a clarity of flavour that comes from restraint. Even the famed black sesame chicken 鈥 a tad runny the day I tried it 鈥 still captured the essence of the dish, and Alpaxhi welcomed the feedback warmly.
Aakhol鈥檚 menu is available on Instagram (Aakhol_Hyderabad), and pork lovers will be pleased to know it features in the menu.
Meal for two is 鈧800 (non-veg)for a set thali; Pre-booking required a day in advance.