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The incredible cultural diversity of Nepal has allowed the natural evolution of quite a few different cuisines. The cuisines are also very heavily influenced by locale and geography.
For the most part, Nepali food is practical rather than gourmet fare–which is not to say it isn’t tasty. The national dish is daal bhaat, boiled rice (bhaat) with a thin lentil sauce (daal), accompanied by curried vegetables (tarkaari) and possibly a dab of pungent pickle (achaar). In rice-growing areas daal bhaat is eaten twice a day, the first meal at around 10:30 a.m. And the second shortly after sunset
- Newari cuisine – Newars are an ethnic group originally living in the Kathmandu Valley, now also in bazaar towns elsewhere in the hills… the Himalayan foothills. There is widespread use of water buffalo meat even though it is avoided by stricter Hindus as too cow-like. There are also various fermented preparations. In the fertile Kathmandu and Pokhara valleys this cuisine often includes a greater variety of foodstuffs — particularly vegetables — than are available in most of the hills.
- Khas or Pahari cuisine – Food of upper-caste Hindus in the hills, conforming to their dietary restrictions. Dal-Bhat-Tarkari is the standard meal eaten twice daily. Dal is a spicy lentil sauce poured over bhat (boiled rice). Tarkari are vegetables such as mustard greens, daikon radish, potatoes, green beans, tomatoes, cauliflower, cabbage, squash cooked with spices. Other accompaniments are a small amount of extremely spicy chutney (made from fresh ingredients) or achar (pickle), often curd, sometimes meat or fish. Alternatives to boiled rice are roti (unleavened flat wheat bread) or coarse cornmeal mush called ato. Goat and fish are the most widely eaten forms of animal flesh. Hindus never eat beef, except for untouchables possibly eating animals that have died of natural causes. Buffalo is avoided by most Hindus, except Newars and janjati, although the newer generation of Brahmans and Kshetrys widely consume them in the form of the immensly popular food called Mo. Pork is consumed only by lower castes and janjati. Chicken and Mutton is usually acceptable to all but the highest Brahman caste. Fruit traditionally grown in the hills include “suntala” (mandarin orange), “kaguti” (lime), “nibuwa” (lemon), “nashpati” (asian pear), and “kaphal” (bayberry or Myrica nagi).
- Terai cuisine – cuisine of lowlands south of Mahabharat Lekh. Often indistinguishable from cuisine of adjacent parts of India, but with some variations among Tharu and other ethnic groups. Also more varied than hill cuisine with a greater variety of crops grown locally or grown in cooler climates in adjacent hill regions as cash crops and exported to the Terai.Fruit commonly grown in the terai include mango, “mewa” (papaya), “kera” (banana) and “katar” (jackfruit).
- Himalayan cuisine – Eaten by culturally Tibetan and similar ethnic groups in northern parts of the country. Barley and millet are the main grains. Heavy use of potatoes. The meat of yaks and possibly yak-cow hybrids may be used, as well as their milk.
- Snacks commonly eaten outside mealtimes include popped or parched corn, “chiura” (beaten rice), “samosa” (turnovers stuffed with meat or vegetables), biscuits (packaged cookies) and Indian-style sweets.
- Beverages – tea usually taken with milk and sugar, “jand” (homemade beer made from rice), “sarbat” (juice of sugar cane), “raksi” (spirits made in rustic distilleries). At higher elevations “chyang” (millet beer).
Nepalese Dining Etiquette
Meals are traditionally eaten seated or squatting on the floor, although urban restaurants mostly have tables and chairs. A large mound of boiled rice surrounded by smaller mounds of prepared vegetables, fresh chutney or preserved pickles, and sometimes curd, fish or meat is served on a rimmed brass or stainless steel plate about 12″ in diameter. Dal and vegetables cooked in sauce will be served in separate small bowls, to be poured over the rice. Food is moved to the mouth with the fingers of the right hand. The left hand should never touch food but may be used for cups and glasses. The right hand is rinsed before and after eating.
Ritually important distinctions are made between unhusked rice (“dhan”), husked uncooked rice (“chamal”) and boiled rice (“bhat”). Once rice has been cooked, it should only be touched by the one who eats it, except that a wife may finish her husband’s leftovers, and small children can eat the leftovers of either parent. It is considered polluting to eat boiled rice in the presence of anyone from a lower caste so a caste-conscious individual may decline to eat rice with foreigners. Beaten rice (“chiura”) is less subject to ritual pollution, as are roti or chapatis (unleavened bread) and boiled grains other than rice.
Rice and Grains
Grain, preferably rice, provides 90% of the calories in the national diet. Rice’s fundamental role is underscored by the language: daal bhaat is khaanaa, “food,” and a common greeting is “Bhaat khaayo?”—literally, “Have you eaten rice?”
Rice is a high-status dish and remains the favorite food in lower regions where it’s plentiful. In the dry higher Hills it’s often a luxury; where it is available it must be portered in and is consequently more expensive. Roasted flour (sattu or tsampa) is the staple food here, made from local grains: maize, wheat, millet, barley, buckwheat. The main food of most Hill families is dhiro, a cooked mush of maize or millet flour eaten alone, with fried vegetables, or with a thin soup. Grinding the family’s daily flour supply on a hand-operated stone mill is one of a housewife’s time-consuming tasks.
Among the highland Bhotia the staple is Tibetan tsampa, ground roasted barley flour, just as in Tibet. Eminently portable, it requires no cooking—just mix with tea and perhaps a little dried cheese and eat. In highland mountain regions like the Sherpa homeland of Khumbu, the staff of life is boiled potatoes, peeled and eaten with salt and a relish of pounded chilis and garlic. This is much better than it sounds, as high-altitude potatoes are marvellously tasty. Sherpa women often make rigi kur, delicious crispy potato pancakes served with a big lump of yak butter.
Produce
The Kathmandu Valley is heaven for seasonal vegetables—immense cauliflowers, carrots, eggplants, beans, and cabbages in the winter; peppers, peas, tomatoes, spinach, and lettuce in the spring; squash, cucumbers, and many local vegetables without English names in the monsoon. Out in the hills the supply is limited to a few standards: potatoes, onion, cauliflower, giant radishes (mula), and various greens. The latter are often fermented and dried into a strong-tasting mess called gundruk, rich in vitamins, iron, and calcium.
Citrus fruits arrive in the winter: suntalaa and grapefruit like pomelo, plus mushy Indian apples. Spring brings luscious tropical fruits like mangoes (aap) with their sweet, sticky, bright orange flesh. The fruit of the milder-flavored papaya (mewa) is the color of orange sherbet; its black seeds are said to be a sovereign remedy for upset stomach. The addictive litchi appears in grape-like bunches in May-June: peel off the corrugated red skin to reveal the sweet white fruit, but beware of the large seeds. August-Sept. brings yellow-skinned guavas (ambaa), with their edible seeds and soft flesh, and more Vitamin C than oranges. The brown naspati appearing in the fall combines the flavor and color of a pear with the texture and shape of an apple. Bananas (keraa) are available year-round in at least seven varieties; unlike other fruit, sold by the kilo, these are sold by the dozen.
Seasonings
Women grind their spices fresh daily on a big stone mortar, using cumin, chili, turmeric, fennel, fenugreek, mustard seed, coriander, and the mixed-spice masala. Bright orange besaar or turmeric, “poor man’s saffron,” gives curries their characteristic golden tint. Rubbed over the skin of butchered goats, it acts as a fly repellent and preservative.
Mustard or rapeseed is grown all over lower Nepal, carpeting fields with yellow flowers in the spring. Mustard oil is used for cooking, as well as oil lamps, temple offerings, and massage. Food is fried in mustard oil and liberally seasoned with garlic, onions, and fresh ginger. More flavor comes from a spoonful of achaar, a pickle which can be sweet, salty, sour, or hot. Try pungent mango pickle and sweet mango relish, and a simple and delicious achaar of chopped tomatoes, onion, garlic, lemon juice, and fresh cilantro.
Authentic Nepali food isn’t burning hot, but it does have a distinct bite of chili pepper (koorsani).
Dairy Products
Yogurt is widely available, called “curd” on local menus and sold in disposable clay pots in local shops. Often it picks up a smoky taste from the wood fire it’s cooked on; it’s best consumed in the form of a lassi or yoghurt shake sold in tourist restaurants. Bhaktapur’s thick, creamy juju dahu or “King of Curd” is supposed to be the best available.
Excess milk is hand-churned into butter. Mahi, the resulting buttermilk byproduct, is eaten with dhiro and said to be good for digestion. Highland herders sew the butter into skins and keep it until it’s bordering on rancid; mountain people use it to flavor their Tibetan-style salt tea, a substantial soupy broth which is a staple of mountain life. Farmers in lower regions boil it until the moisture vaporizes to make clarified butter or ghee (Nepalis call it ghiu), which they sell in Terai towns and India.
Chhurpi is dried cheese made from the solids of mahi or yoghurt, dried in the sun, then cut into squares and strung on cords of yak hair, rather like an edible necklace. Rock-hard at first, chhurpi slowly softens when boiled in soup or stew. People gnaw on chunks of it all day long as a sort of tasteless Himalayan chewing gum.
Snacks (Khaajaa)
Chiura, beaten rice, is made by pounding soaked, uncooked rice with a heavy wooden mallet. Easy to carry and requiring no cooking, it’s a popular snack with farmers and porters. Served with yogurt, vegetable curry, achaar, and fried meat (chuela), it’s an essential element of Newar ritual feasts. Roasted chiura, crunchier and tastier than the plain type, is mixed with yoghurt as a substitute for breakfast cereals. Roasted with butter and sugar, it rivals caramel corn. Popped rice (bhuja) is the Nepali equivalent of Rice Krispies, popped in a pan, in hot sand to distribute the heat evenly.
Other favorite snacks include curried potatoes (alu daam), dried peas in sauce (kerau), chewy dried meat (sukuti), and deep-fried triangular dumplings (samosa). Breads vary from fried rings of rice-flour (sel roti) to Gurung corn cakes and the Indian flat, thin wheat-flour disks (chapaati) and the smaller fried puri. Kathmandu’s south Indian restaurants offer dosa, huge crispy thin pancakes of lentil flour filled with spiced vegetables and served with several sauces.
Liquor
The finest alcohol is homemade stuff. Raksi is potent, exhilarating, and smooth as velvet; it’s often mistranslated as “wine,” but it’s really grain alcohol. To test for good raksi, toss a small amount on a fire and see if it burns (braver or more drunken connoisseurs will dip their finger into their glass and set it aflame). Different grains produce different flavors: rice raksi is rich and smooth, kodo or millet is stronger and more fiery. Women of a household pride themselves on their liquor, and will put the most effort and time into making raksi for a big celebration like a wedding. At feasts and celebrations it’s poured from the graceful spouted anti into tiny clay cups, an art which tests the grace and skill of the pourer.
Less potent is home-brewed beer of rice or millet, jand (Nepali) or chang (Tibetan), a whitish, thin drink with a refreshing sweet-sour taste. A variation served in mountain regions is tongba, fermented mash which is placed in a wooden container and mixed with hot water. Nepalis drink from a bamboo (or nowadays plastic) straw, sipping the liquid and avoiding the bits of millet; the hot water is refilled several times. Nursing a flask of tongba makes a pleasant pursuit for a cold evening.
Famous Nepalese Dishes
Gundrook- Dheedo
Equally popular among Nepali people and foreign tourists, Gundrook-Dheedo is a sugar-free dish made of wheat, maize and dried green vegetable. The food is high on nutrition level and satisfies the taste buds as well.
Alu Tama
Aloo Tama (Alu Tama) simply means ‘Potato Bamboo Shoots’. It is a unique and classic Nepali curry flavor dish. It is unique in the sense that it is unlike any other Indian or South Asian curry since they rarely use bamboo shoots. Similarly, unlike other East Asian cuisine such as Chinese that uses Bamboo shoots but do not use curry spices.
Vegetable Pulao (Fried Nepali Rice)
Vegetable Pulao is one of the popular ways rice is served during the parties and events in the Nepalese household. It has flavor of turmeric and cumin to it. The rice is particularly famous among tourists who prefer eating it with curd and Manchurian.
Masu
Masu is spiced or curried meat (usually chicken, mutton, buffalo or pork) with gravy. Served with rice, it is a main course dish, very popular in Nepal.
Vegetable Thukpa (Egg Noodles)
This is a seasonal dish. Tibetan Vegetable Thukpa is one of the main food. During Tibetan new year celebration ‘Losar’ the dish is a part of celebration and tradition for the Nepalese.
Chatamari
Regarded as Newari pizza, Chatamari is a flat bread made from rice flour with or without toppings (meat, vegetables, eggs, sugar). It is highly savoured by the tourists who consider it as a good and healthy substitute to pizza.
