Taste of Nepal
Fueled by Michael Pollan documentaries and scary climate change articles, my interest in eating locally sourced food grew over the years in college, but the reverse could be said of my bank account as I marched my way towards a four and half year degree. After creating a spreadsheet comparing the prices of the CO-OP and WINCO (a large super market chain), I decided paying 3X as much for broccoli was not in my budget and only shopped the CO-OP on sale days. I reserved the dream of buying food exclusively from the Farmer’s Market for “successful career” Kate.
However, after coming to Nepal, my goal of eating food grown within a 100 mile radius was blown out of the water as 90% of my food comes from within a stone’s throw away from my house. My bedroom window overlooks looks our rice and potato fields, our enormous vegetable garden is right behind the goat shed, no fuel is needed as we carry the harvest on our backs, and we choose not to apply pesticides to our greens. This way of farming has been passed down through generations, as have the recipes for cooking up this home grown food.
Green garden bouquet and endless sunny days in village
First breakfast (7:00 am): Chana (salted/turmeriked/cumined/fried chickpeas) and anda (egg). This is what my didi (sister) feeds me and what you will find at small restaurants.
If you take an early morning bus, it will pull over around 9 am, and you can order a steaming bowl of tarkari (potato bean soup) and roti (similar to tortilla) or chana and anda; all for about 50 cents. At home, now that our chicken is giving eggs, chana is one of the only food stuffs we buy from the market. Chiya (tea) : The day doesn’t start in Nepal without first drinking a glass of sugary black tea. And, if the water buffalo is giving milk, then we drink dudh chiya, the creamiest and most posh tea I have ever consumed. Before sunrise, my didi milks the buffalo and before I have woken up enough to make complete sentences, the tea kettle is on the fire. Every day she gathers enough grass, shrubs, and tree branches to fill its big buffalo belly. On very special days, I forgo the tea, and I brew myself some local coffee. The coffee grown in the hills above my house pairs magically with fresh whole buffalo milk.
Spicy chickpea breakfast with buffalo milk tea
Second Breakfast (9:30 pm): Dal, bhaat, tarkari; lentils, rice, and vegetables, the National Food of Nepal. You are hard pressed to find Nepalis who don’t eat this meal every day, twice a day. While wholesome, planted by hand, and not packaged, as a nutrition volunteer, it is hard to stomach the white rice two times a day. Every person in my community loads enormous bags of rice into their backs and carries it to the mill where the protein is polished off of each grain. The ultimate dichotomy, in a country with high statistics of malnutrition, the removed nutrient-packed rice germ is only good enough to feed to the goats.
Grains of rice separated from the straw by beating it on a rock in the fields.
Alongside my shiny white rice are heaps of vegetables spiced with turmeric, coriander, chili peppers, and enough salt to burn your tongue. All picked from our garden, we gorge on butter beans, cauliflower, mustard greens, radish, string beans, tai spinach, kale, sweet potato greens, okra, and colacassia.
Typically made out of lentils, dal is a watery soup that is spooned over the rice to wet and give it flavor. Ours is actually made out soybeans that we planted in the berms of the rice paddies, but when those run out in a few months we will buy it from the market.
Cooked greens, pumpkin curry, and wheat roti that I always burn loaded onto my special plate.
Each meal is also accompanied by a dollop of achar, often translated as pickle or chutney. In a country where the meal is exactly the same twice a day, achar is where the cook’s creativity shines. Some achar examples: Toasted sesame seeds ground and cooked with tomato and onion Toasted sesame seeds ground Sun dried pumpkin seeds ground and mixed with shredded radish Shredded radish with citrus extract Chopped raw onion with citrus extract Chopped raw onion mixed, ground toasted sesame seeds, and chili pepper Pickled radish Pickled bamboo shoots Sun dried cauliflower mixed with toasted ground mustard seeds, oil, and chili pepper Sun dried fermented mustard greens Chopped onion with reconstituted peas Bitter guard fried Bitter guard sautéed with spices Fermented cauliflower leaves
Snack (2:30 pm): All work stops for another glass of chiya and khaaja (snack).
Some past snacks: Popcorn and roasted soybeans Fruit with salt and chili pepper
Grapefruit with salt and chili pepper. Not a snack I had expected to absolutely love.
Top ramen soup Cucumber with salt and chili pepper Roti (tortilla) made of wheat or millet
Left over vegetables Popped rice Puffed rice Fried rice Red sweet rice
Chat Pot: puffed rice mixed with crumbled ramen, chickpeas, potato, onion, and lots of chilies. Never eaten alone, everyone gathers around throws back this spicy snack with cardboard spoons.
Dinner (6:00 pm): Same as second breakfast but sometimes instead of rice we made a dark thick millet paste Dhiro or wheat roti. Dhiro with fresh churned butter, greens, butter beans, and toasted ground sesame seed achar is my favorite meal. Dessert is not part of Nepali culture, so when my American self is craving sweets after dinner, my quick fix is usually peanut butter slathered on roti or a piece of chocolate mailed to me by my awesome family. Not locally grown, but one of the best parts of my day.
Cooked over the fire in a banana leaf, millet roti is about as healthy as it gets. Slathered in peanut butter and with a dollop of honey, and it will melt your heart.