Saturday, November 09, 2013

A Culinary Experiment - 2

For our first supper in Pokhara we decided on some traditional Nepali food, because we were pretty sure that what we'd been getting on the trip wasn't that authentic.  So, we went to the Pokhara Thakali Kitchen.

The Thakalis originated along the Kali Gandaki valley in central Nepal.  That's the river that flows out of the Mustang region and goes south past Jomsom.  Many Thakalis are hotel and lodge owners and trekkers on the Annapurna circuit will have met them.

The first course was a small serving of Thakali bean soup.

Assuming that some spice was imminent, we each ordered a banana lassi

What followed was a large platter filled with 5 small metal bowls and a helping of rice. 

The bowls contained 3 kinds of curry, dal, paneer and egg curry.  Added as small amounts to the plate were different types of achar, salad, papad, ghee...  (A small bowl of yogurt with banana, apple and orange came on the side.)  We won't claim to have identified each one....

The offerings were definitely of a curry character and were moderately spicy.  The lassi cooled things down.

Tea followed.  But not just any old tea: Nepali tea which was milk tea with what we were sure was a small bit of butter on top. 

A definite success.

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