Nepali manners: Food & Drinks

Hi, me again :). Another week has passed here in Kathmandu. Life here in Nepal just passes on. Even though I wrote already a lot about Nepal to you, you still don’t really know much about the ‘life’ here. I told you about the extraordinary things I’ve seen, like the view in the mountains and the Dashain festival, but also the normal way of living (of which I’m getting more and more used to) is unusual and special to me and you, Western people (assuming most readers of this blog are from Europe). So, I think it’s about time I tell you about the normal life in Kathmandu, and what is so different about it. I want you to show how Nepali people live, how they act and behave, what their culture is like, what they eat, what they look like. …

Of course, it is not possible to talk about ‘the Nepali’ in general. All of those people are different, but there are some very typical habbits and manners which are very different and strange for Western people. Some of those manners I’m starting to take over myself, others are still very difficult for me to understand. And although I already know quite a bit of Nepal, still I hear and see almost every day new things of this country, its people and its culture.

Talking about the Nepali culture is very interesting (at least, I think so), but it will take a long time, telling everything I want to share with you. So, I will divide this topic in different parts. For the next few days, I will write you about different parts of the Nepali culture, so you slowly get to know it and you might be able to picture the place I am living in and the people I am living with.

 

Today, I will start with a simple topic, one that will probably interest you all (since it is some of the first things you get confronted with when in a foreign country): food. 🙂 People warned me, before coming here, that Indian and Nepali food is very spicy. They were definitly right. The people here use a lot of spices. To make a dish, they mix a whole bunge of spices (mostly cumin, masala, curry and chili pepper) with the vegetables and the meat, and than poor water over it, to create a ‘spicesauce’. The result is a very tasty, but almost always quite (sometimes very) spicy meal. I really like the Nepali food, and I mostly don’t care if the food is a bit spicy, but I have to admit that for a few times already, I almost had to cry because of the spices in the food.

Probably the most typical Nepali dish is ‘Dhat Bhat’. ‘Dhal Bhat’ means: ‘lentils with rice’, and that’s exactly what it is. Mostly, some vegetables and potatoes (and sometimes meat, mostly chicken) are added, doused with a (spicy) sauce. We eat Dhal Bhat every day at 9 o’clock in the morning at the centers. I find it a very tasty dish (or to say it in Nepali: ‘Dhal Bhat dhere mitho chha’), though I fear that by the end of my internship, I will be totally sick of it :). Anyway, if you come to Nepal, eating ‘Dhal Bhat’ is a must. It is one of the only dishes that really has it’s origin in Nepal. Most other dishes served here, are based on the Indian kitchen.

Besides Dhal Bhat, there are 2 more dishes of which I know they are really from Nepal. One of them is ‘momo’. This dish comes from the mountains, but it is eaten all over Nepal. ‘Momo’ can best be translated as ‘dumpling’. It is made out of flour, dough and water, filled with vegetables or meat, and is mostly served with a (of course spicy) sauce for dipping. The other real Nepali dish is there is the ‘Newari Set’. Newari are dried rice flakes with vegetables and a spicy sauce is served with it. It is good food, though quite dry, even with the sauce.

Apart from those few dishes which are really typical Nepalese, Nepal has a very rich kitchen with influences from Tibet and India. Lots of dishes with noodles, like Chowmein (fried noodles) and Tukpa (noodle soup), and of course a lot of rice. One of the most known Indian based dishes is ‘Thali set’, about the same as the ‘Newari set’ but served with normal rice. Different is that it a fresh yoghurt is served with the dish, to soften your tongue from the spices :p. Besides these great dishes, I also really like ‘samosa’, a triangle of fried dough filled with vegetables and potatoes, and ‘pakoda’, a fried ‘cake’ filled with vegetables. Both are Indian snacks, and they are just delicious! They are also very cheap. In little restaurants you only pay 15 till 20 rupees for one samosa, and for 5 rupees you can get a pakoda. Those 2 definitly are the most ideal snacks for a little hunger :).

 

So, what do we remember about the Nepalese food? It is very spicy, and really good. 🙂 But while talking about the food, it is impossible to forget the drinks. So, what are the Nepali drinks? Water, in the first place. Because of the heat (yes it is very hot in the Kathmandu, even we are at 1400m hight) drinking a lot of water is really necessary. Water from the sink is not suited for drinking and drinking water has to come directly from drinking springs, carefully purified by licenced organisations. It gets supplied in huge water bottles of 20 litres. We also have a some in our appartment.

The second most common drink here in Nepal is tea. I drink tea about 5 times a day here. The tea is also really good here. The 2 typical Nepali teas are ‘masala tea’, a tea made from spices (but surprisingly isn’t spicy), and ‘milk tea’, tea with milk and a lot of sugar. I really like both of them, which probably is the reason why I drink so much tea :). Masala is, by the way, an Indian spice which is also used in a lot of dishes. It is not particularly spicy, and really tasty! You can be sure I will take quite some of it with me back to Belgium, because I am not sure if you can find it over there (can someone please go to the Colruyt or den Aldi and check it for me?).

Soft drinks here in Nepal are just Fanta, Cola and Sprite (like everywhere else in the world). They also drink a lot of ‘lemon soda’, which is sparkling water with lemon juice. It tastes very fresh and is perfect to drink on a hot day. Except for those, soft drinks aren’t drank that much here. Also coffee, is a more uncommonly drink. It is also really expensive, so that probably is the reason why.

And that brings us to the last category of drinks: the alcoholic drinks :D. I already told you about Raksi, a strong alcoholic drink made from rice. It’s a drink from the mountains and really is disgusting. It probably is the worst drink I have evertasted in my life! Besides Raksi, we also tried the Nepali beers: Ghorka, Everest and Nepali Ice. Of course, none of them can match the true Belgian beers, but all of them are quite ok (I myself prefer the Nepali Ice). Interesting to notice is that Nepali people do know what god beer is, since there are several restaurants which serve some of the best Belgian beers (which is just the best of the best!).

Ok, I don’t know much more to tell about the gastronomy of Nepal, but if you have any questions about it, you can always ask (just leave a comment on this blog message). If I don’t know the answer, there are plenty of Nepali people here I can ask it :). Also about other cultural aspects you can ask whatever you want :). I hope you enjoyed again reading my blog and hope that you will also read the next one 😀

Kaat

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