I haven't seen many threads about Food in Sajha. I know a lot of Nepalis I know love chicken and rice and have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. What else besides chicken and rice do you guys love (ethnic food). Mine are:

Vietnamese - especially (Goi Couin)
Thai - Green Curry Chicken, Fish Cake, Tom Yum soup
Japanese - Shasimi, sea weed salad
Chinese- Dim Sum Brunch
Korean- Seafood soup and bbq
and more

Lets hear yours.

i like momo all yr long even it's not rainy day.

.. i wanna party with sitara ji and badarni kt..with momos and piro masu.. I'll provide the liquor ;) and bholay baba ko prasadee -- enough for the needy ;)

Moneyminded hates Dharan girls, I am Dharan girl so I hate you. We Dharane girls are very pretty and we are the best looking girls. Girls with long nose are ugly.

I LOVE MOMO

and i say if the food is not spicy its not good! nepali people need to handle their spice!

Dyam bro, i like ur idea.
But i guess, the party will be more exciting with vodka, kachala, chyoila, and momo

*:o)

Bedrock, what is that you have to bring up my mom and her cooking? Come on! I have realized whenever we Nepali talk about something that might conflict with someone's idea, we have to bring up other person's whole family. For example, "Say that to you sister or mother," "Will you do the same thing to your sister and mother?" "Try treating your mother and sister the same way," blah blah blah. Can not we put forth our arguments without bring up the entire family? Such a childish behaviour.

<1%. Interesting observation. God knows where that number came from. I guess.. it's just made up from one's judgement. In such case the numer is meaningless.

Anyway, yes I grew up eating nepali food. Just because you eat something doesn't mean that you have to like it. And you don't always eat things you like. That is why most of us don't eat food to enjoy but to fill ourselves up because we are a poor country and we don't have enough choices on food which sometimes may be expensive, and thus we don't experiment much with our food in fear of spoiling it. Otherwise we wouldn't be eating same Dal-Bhat twice a day everyday if we really wanted to enjoy than to fill up our stomach.

So you know what, from my judgement on this thread, it should be "Food you Miss," than "Favourite Food".
Honestly when you were in Nepal, did you not crave for Pizza, Burger, Chowmin even though they were expensive? Didn't you dream about having a meal in Wimpies or Nirulas? Probably then they would have been your favorite food. But now since you get too much of Burger and Pizza you crave for Dal-Bhat, and other nepali food.

Hurray dude, sorry if I offended you. But with no such intention. My use of "family" was in a friendly way, i would have said the same thing to my cousins for that matter. No need to take it personlly, "mom" was used because she is the king of the kitchen. I myself think it is hilarious if i tell my own mom, hey mom don't put spices in the kashi today because it won't taste like kashi. She sure will think I went nuts or something. So relax, no bad intentions.

As far as use of numbers 1%, you see I used the word "bet" which tells its just my personal feeling. I don't think anyone can come up with such number without being biased. If we do a statistical analysis on this thread only, so far there are 2 people who don't like nepali food and there are almost 70 posts (i am guessing at least 30 people), that makes it 6.66% not liking nepali food plus margin of errors. There you go, I am wrong.

My original intention about this thread was favourite food, which you can see if you read my first two threads. But lot of people who started posting on this thread started to talk about Nepali food (which happens to be my fav. also). Thus the ideas began flowing and here we are. As of right now, 1083 views and 68 postings.

Hope this clarify your concern.

Isn't dal bhat and tarkari is our national meal. its just a combination of lentil soup, curried vegetables and a rice oh yeah everynow and than some curried meat. I don't find it dynamic cuisine. Its so surprising we are in between two giiants CHINA and INDIA but still have a very dull taste. We need to develop our cuisine don't we? We are talking about some newari and thakali food but hey aren't they a mix and match of indian and chinese cuisine. Its just a thought no hard feelings.
with peace and love

correction- mom "Queen of the kitchen".

Oh no, Swaati Thapa just blew my time cosuming statistical analysis. I am drowning...help.....

Does anyone here love New Road "gutpak", i used to love it when i was in nepal, now don't have it :(

HEY MR. MM I FIND UR CHIT CHAT INTERESTING ABOUT PASTA SO I HAVE HERE SOMETHING FOR YA,DO NOT GET OFFEND. JUST GIVE A LOOK
China Gives No Ground In Spats Over History

By Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, September 22, 2004; Page A25

BEIJING, Sept. 21 -- With diplomats jetting off for marathon negotiations and editorial writers fulminating about national honor, a recent quarrel between China and South Korea had all the trappings of a modern diplomatic crisis. Except for one thing: The dispute was over a kingdom last heard from in A.D. 668.

Chinese researchers participating in a government-funded project on ancient societies in northern China had concluded that Goguryeo, in its early manifestations at least, was under Chinese dominion. Korean scholars insisted that, from beginning to end, Goguryeo was 100 percent Korean. When the Chinese Foreign Ministry, heeding its own scholars, eliminated the Korean version of history from its official Web site last April, things got serious.

The noisy clash was finally papered over last month in a five-point accord reached in Seoul after protracted discussions between Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Wu Dawei and senior officials in the South Korean Foreign Ministry. Both countries pledged to get along better. But they left the main question unresolved: Was the kingdom, which spanned the current China-North Korea border for about 700 years, Chinese or Korean?

For China, the answer has long been obvious. Their culture, they have been taught, radiated far and wide over the centuries, embracing great historical events ranging from Genghis Khan's empire to the invention of spaghetti and meatballs. According to Chinese history, not only did Goguryeo begin as an ethnic minority in the Chinese fold, but neighboring Japanese civilization got started when 1,000 Chinese boys and girls sailed over in 209 B.C. to colonize the islands in hopes of finding immortality pills.

"Goguryeo was part of the Han Dynasty," said Li Boqian, who runs the Center for the Study of Ancient Civilizations at Beijing University. "But the Han Dynasty later declined, and it split off."

Some analysts have seen a design in China's tendency to place itself at the center of history.

Korean commentators, for instance, warned that the real reason for the Goguryeo spat was a desire by Chinese officials to cast doubt on the present border in case North Korea falls apart suddenly and destabilizes the area. Beijing-based analysts suggested that Chinese officials wanted to make ethnic minorities, such as the restive populations of Tibet and Xingjiang, feel more comfortable with Chinese rule by stressing that they have always been part of the nation.

But anyone living in China quickly understands that, whatever officials may be up to, something deeper than government policy has informed the Chinese people's view of their place in the world. In a culture so old and so rich in history and invention, it seems folklore for centuries has tended to operate on the premise that China originated almost everything and foreigners are lucky if they can grab a little piece of the heritage.

Over the last 150 years, as China suffered from foreign occupation, civil war and extremist ideology, modern advances largely passed the country by. Only in recent years has China begun to regain its role in the world. But for most Chinese, the idea of their culture as a source of past greatness and future strength has never faded.

"There are so many great people who did so many great things," said Wang Zhenhui, 22, a public finance student at Beijing University.

The idea of China's centrality started early. Li, who formerly ran Beijing University's archaeology program, said that 3,000 years ago, the Western Chou Dynasty moved its capital to Luo Yang, south of Beijing in the present-day Henan province, and declared it the center of the Earth. A bronze wine vessel was found nearby in the 1970s, he said, with the inscription "Here Lives the Middle Kingdom," the first known use of what has become China's modern name.

That was just the beginning. Just as every American schoolchild learns that George Washington admitted to cutting down the cherry tree, generations of Chinese schoolchildren have learned that their forebears thought up the Four Great Inventions: gunpowder, the compass, paper and movable type.

But competitors in the recent Asian Cup soccer tournament here were amused to be told by some of their Chinese hosts that this country also invented soccer. Members of some golf clubs, giving a homegrown spin to a sport that is swiftly becoming popular here, have told prospective members that archaeologists uncovered drawings indicating the sport originated sometime during the Tang Dynasty, from A.D. 618 to 907.

It does not stop there. Popular history has extended Chinese inventiveness to include pasta, which, according to legend, was discovered by Marco Polo when he visited China and then taken back to Italy, where it became the national staple.

Italian historians have concluded their version of pasta was first made in Sicily around 1000 when Arabs were in charge there, according to Francesco Sisci of the Italian Cultural Institute of Beijing. But never mind; for most Chinese, Italian pasta is merely transplanted noodles.

Even pizza, it is said here, is nothing more than the Italian pronunciation of China's bing-zi, which, in its current evolution, is a pocket made from wheat dough and stuffed with ground meat or diced vegetables. According to Chinese folklore, Marco Polo or some other Italian traveler took back the idea of bing-zi, which archaeologists believe was made here in one form or another as long as 5,000 years ago on terra cotta grills and enhanced by a Domino's-like list of toppings.

Li noted that cultural evolution often has occurred simultaneously in two places, and there is no reason to suppose Italy did not develop pasta on its own just as China developed noodles on its own. But the popular story has taken hold in the Chinese imagination, which sees noodles traveling to Italy in Marco Polo's luggage.

The Chinese appropriation of Genghis Khan, viewed elsewhere as a Mongolian conqueror who created a vast empire including parts of China, has received a more formal endorsement. The period during which his descendants ruled over much of what is now China has been baptized in most textbooks the Yuan Dynasty, 1279 to 1368, and treated by Chinese historians as another in a long succession of Chinese reigns.

Similarly, most Chinese have been taught that American Indians descended from intrepid Chinese who moved down over the Bering Strait -- a belief held by many non-Chinese historians as well -- and that Buddhism, although imported from India, was spread around Asia by Chinese travelers.

In particular, the story goes, the Chinese monk Jian Zhen sailed to Japan in 753 and, at the invitation of the Japanese royal family, spread knowledge about Buddhism, medical science and sculpture to a population thirsty for knowledge.

That, of course, was long after the 500 boys and 500 girls dispatched by Emperor Qin Shihuan had started families and multiplied. Their gesture has been commemorated several times in recent years by people who gather at the Ancestral Temple of a Thousand Children, on the site where Qin had his capital in what is now Hebei province, just south of Beijing.

But anyone living in China quickly understands that, whatever officials may be up to, something deeper than government policy has informed the Chinese people's view of their place in the world. In a culture so old and so rich in history and invention, it seems folklore for centuries has tended to operate on the premise that China originated almost everything and foreigners are lucky if they can grab a little piece of the heritage.

Over the last 150 years, as China suffered from foreign occupation, civil war and extremist ideology, modern advances largely passed the country by. Only in recent years has China begun to regain its role in the world. But for most Chinese, the idea of their culture as a source of past greatness and future strength has never faded.

"There are so many great people who did so many great things," said Wang Zhenhui, 22, a public finance student at Beijing University.

The idea of China's centrality started early. Li, who formerly ran Beijing University's archaeology program, said that 3,000 years ago, the Western Chou Dynasty moved its capital to Luo Yang, south of Beijing in the present-day Henan province, and declared it the center of the Earth. A bronze wine vessel was found nearby in the 1970s, he said, with the inscription "Here Lives the Middle Kingdom," the first known use of what has become China's modern name.

That was just the beginning. Just as every American schoolchild learns that George Washington admitted to cutting down the cherry tree, generations of Chinese schoolchildren have learned that their forebears thought up the Four Great Inventions: gunpowder, the compass, paper and movable type.

But competitors in the recent Asian Cup soccer tournament here were amused to be told by some of their Chinese hosts that this country also invented soccer. Members of some golf clubs, giving a homegrown spin to a sport that is swiftly becoming popular here, have told prospective members that archaeologists uncovered drawings indicating the sport originated sometime during the Tang Dynasty, from A.D. 618 to 907.

It does not stop there. Popular history has extended Chinese inventiveness to include pasta, which, according to legend, was discovered by Marco Polo when he visited China and then taken back to Italy, where it became the national staple.

Italian historians have concluded their version of pasta was first made in Sicily around 1000 when Arabs were in charge there, according to Francesco Sisci of the Italian Cultural Institute of Beijing. But never mind; for most Chinese, Italian pasta is merely transplanted noodles.

Even pizza, it is said here, is nothing more than the Italian pronunciation of China's bing-zi, which, in its current evolution, is a pocket made from wheat dough and stuffed with ground meat or diced vegetables. According to Chinese folklore, Marco Polo or some other Italian traveler took back the idea of bing-zi, which archaeologists believe was made here in one form or another as long as 5,000 years ago on terra cotta grills and enhanced by a Domino's-like list of toppings.

Li noted that cultural evolution often has occurred simultaneously in two places, and there is no reason to suppose Italy did not develop pasta on its own just as China developed noodles on its own. But the popular story has taken hold in the Chinese imagination, which sees noodles traveling to Italy in Marco Polo's luggage.

The Chinese appropriation of Genghis Khan, viewed elsewhere as a Mongolian conqueror who created a vast empire including parts of China, has received a more formal endorsement. The period during which his descendants ruled over much of what is now China has been baptized in most textbooks the Yuan Dynasty, 1279 to 1368, and treated by Chinese historians as another in a long succession of Chinese reigns.

Similarly, most Chinese have been taught that American Indians descended from intrepid Chinese who moved down over the Bering Strait -- a belief held by many non-Chinese historians as well -- and that Buddhism, although imported from India, was spread around Asia by Chinese travelers.

In particular, the story goes, the Chinese monk Jian Zhen sailed to Japan in 753 and, at the invitation of the Japanese royal family, spread knowledge about Buddhism, medical science and sculpture to a population thirsty for knowledge.

That, of course, was long after the 500 boys and 500 girls dispatched by Emperor Qin Shihuan had started families and multiplied. Their gesture has been commemorated several times in recent years by people who gather at the Ancestral Temple of a Thousand Children, on the site where Qin had his capital in what is now Hebei province, just south of Beijing.

.. haha whatever, who cares what's favourite and what is missed... food is food and good food is preferable.... btw swat, you seem very thoughtful.. and sound like you can use some good tyammmmeee... so you're also invited to my party with sitara ji and badarni kt.... i can work on some chinese-pasta if you would like that.. lol

Dyamn is going to have hell of a party, wait a minute, only females are invited. Have a good time and let us know what was on the Menu.

ST, interesting article, I am not surprised though about Chinese inventions.

.. hehe this is what i love about sajha.. you start out with your favourite food and you get to learn about globilazation to circuits to rocket science to calculus to statistics to what not, even chinese shoes, chinese balm , vicks and whatever crap they sell to make money.. lol.. " ..so keep on rockin' me babyyyyy" At a point you even get enlightned that that your "favourite food" WAS ACTUALLY NOT EVEN YOUR FAVOUTIRE FOOD , but is just the "food you miss. " OMG what an observation. It's like saying to a girl, YOU don't like be babaayyy , but you like the idea of liking me.. or you can tell a kera wala, if they still exist in Nepal, that you don't like the keras but you like the keras getting eaten you ... hmmm intersting - intersting

btw, this sucks that sitara ji is being passive lately.. bhayana ni sitara ji.. i have been learning so much English from you.. please do not be passive.. I am serious, honestly , satya - satya ..... yeso chawatta -chuttaa , bela bela ma thapdai garnu hola hai :)

Taas at Shanti Chowk, Chitwan

dhut.... thuk po aayo samjhida kheri pani :(

My favorite food- badar ko masu, hatti ko sukuti, ani manche ko kachila.

Hurray: Its kinda sad that you don't enjoy nepali food. Most of our food has spices but not all. But whatever spices that you use in a food has a purpose. Oh and thats not just for flavoring. And by the way, salt and pepper is also called spices (in america). Don't you use them while grilling? Even if you add spices to chicken.. it still tastes like chicken or we wouldn't notic the different between chicken curry and goat curry. hehe.. no offense please..

Sitara.. your idea of friday night sounds like fun.. count me in anytime.

Enjoy!!

Gandaki, you cannot compare Salt and Pepper with spices like Cumin, Turmeric, and the ones we or Indians use in our foods for their domination on the taste. Yes, we can tell the difference, at least I can, between Chicken and Mutton, but the taste gets layred by the spices. So it's almost like we get the difference by the texture than the taste, really.

And why is it sad that I don't enjoy Nepali food? If you are then don't be or else it will be a useless emotion. Save yourself some energy for other emoitions.