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Taste Bud | Dedicated to all the Foodies - 15 November 2017

94 views · Published 15 November 2017 · 15:41 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: Kantipur TV HD · 2017 · News & Politics

Nepalese cuisine refers to the food eaten in Nepal. Nepal's cultural and geographic diversity has resulted in a variety of cuisines based upon ethnicity and on soil and climate.

Dal-bhat-tarkari (दाल भात तरकारी) is eaten throughout Nepal. Dal is a soup made of lentils and spices. This is served over boiled grain, bhat—usually rice but sometimes another vegetable curry, tarkari. Condiments are usually small amounts of extremely spicy pickle (achaar, अचार) which can be fresh or fermented. The variety of these is staggering, said to number in the thousands. Other accompaniments may be sliced lemon (nibuwa) or lime (kagati) with fresh green chili (hariyo khursani). Dhindo (ढिंडो) is a traditional food of Nepal.

Much of the cuisine is variation on Asian themes. Other foods have hybrid Tibetan, Indian and Thai origins. Momo—Tibetan style dumplings with Nepalese spices—are one of the most popular foods in Nepal. They were originally filled with buffalo meat but now also with goat or chicken, as well as vegetarian preparations. Special foods such as sel roti and patre are eaten during festivals such as Tihar.

Chowmein is another Nepali favorite. It is a Chinese-style stir fried noodles but Nepalis have given it their own twist.

Dal-bhat-tarkari is the standard meal eaten twice daily. However, with land suitable for irrigated rice paddies in short supply, other grains supplement or even dominate. Wheat becomes unleavened flat bread (roti or chapati). Maize (makai), buckwheat (fapar), barley (jau), or millet (kodo) become porridge-like (dhido or ato). Tarkari can be spinach and fresh greens (sag), fermented and dried greens (gundruk or sinki), white radish (mula), potatoes (alu), green beans (simi), tomatoes (golbeda), cauliflower (kauli), cabbage (bandakopi), pumpkin (farsi), etc.

Fruit traditionally grown in the hills include mandarin orange (suntala), kaffir lime (kagati), lemon (nibuwa), Asian pear (nashpati), and bayberry (kaphal). Mangoes (aam) grow up to about 800 meters elevation.

Yogurt (dahi) and curried meat (masu) or fish (machha) are served as side dishes when available. Chicken (kukhura) and fish are usually acceptable to all but the Khas Brahmin (Bahun) caste, who are vegetarian. Observant Hindus never eat beef (gaiko masu). They also eschew buffalo and yak meat as being too cow-like. Domestic pork (sungurko masu) was traditionally only eaten by aadibasi, however wild boar (bangur ko masu) was traditionally hunted and eaten by magars. A strain derived from wild boar is now raised in captivity and used for meat that is increasingly popular with Pahari ethnicities and castes that did not traditionally eat pork.
Himalayan cuisine is influenced culturally by Tibetan and closely related ethnic groups in the Himalaya and Trans-Himalaya. Buckwheat, barley and millet are important cold-tolerant grains often processed into noodles or tsampa which is flour ground from toasted grain. Butter tea is made by mixing butter or ghee and salt into strong tea. This tea preparation is commonly mixed with tsampa flour to make a kind of fast food especially eaten while traveling.

Grain is also made into alcoholic beverages (see below). Potatoes are another important staple crop and food. Substantial amounts of rice are imported from the lowlands. The meat of yak and possibly yak-cow hybrids may be used, as well as their milk. Meat is often prepared as momo.
Thakali cuisine—transitional between Himalayan and lowland cuisines—is eaten by Thakali people living in Thak-Khola Valley, an ancient and relatively easy trade route through the high Himalaya. This cuisine is also served in inns (bhattis) run by Thakalis alongside other trade routes and in Pokhara and other towns in the hills of central Nepal, that were said to offer the best food and accommodations before the great proliferation of facilities catering to foreign trekkers.

Thakali cuisine is less vegetarian than Pahari cuisine. Yak and yak-cow hybrids locally known as Jhopa were consumed by the lower castes. All castes eat the meat of local sheep called Bheda and Chyangra or Chiru imported from Tibet. Meat is sliced into thin slices and dried on thin poles near the cooking fire. Blood sausage is also prepared and dried. Dried meat is added to vegetable curries or sauteed in ghee and dipped into timur-ko-choup which is a mixture of red chili powder, Sichuan pepper, salt and local herbs. This spice mixture also seasons new potatoes, or eggs which may be boiled, fried or made into omelets.

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Taste Bud | Dedicated to all the Foodies - 15 November 2017

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