All about Nepalese Street Food

Have you heard of the country Nepal?

It’s a marvellous country sandwiched between India and China; it’s completely landlocked and home to the Himalayas.

You may be familiar with Mount Everest, the Sherpa culture and the adventure tourism it boasts.

But one thing that’s not pushed to the forefront of people’s attention across the world that should be is their marvellous cuisine.

What is Nepali food like?

Many people assume Nepal’s food is exactly like India’s; it’s not. One of the unique things about Nepal is that there are a lot of ethnicities in the country. According to their government, there are 126 ethnic groups. That’s a lot!

A lot of the country’s food varies based on the ethnic group, geographical region and climate. Some of the cuisines have slight similarities to other Asian countries, but Nepal has its own stamp.

The most common dish in Nepal is Dal Bhat Takari, which is Nepalese for a lentil soup, rice and vegetables. In addition to this, it usually has additional extras come with this, such as pickle, raw onion, raw radish, lime and chilli. Sometimes they include curried meat alongside this and place it on a round gold or silver plate.

There’s a saying in Nepal known as “Dal Baht Power 24 hour” because of Nepal’s staple dish. The majority of the country eat this twice a day for lunch and dinner; it’s incredibly common in homes. As well Nepali’s commonly eat the following foods:

• Thukpa: A noodle soup coming from Tibet
• Khaja set: This is a dish coming from the Newari culture consisting of beaten rice, lentils, beans and potato
• Bara: A type of pancake made from lentils.

But alongside this, there are some epic street foods you should know about if you’re planning on visiting Nepal. Heck, you don’t even need to visit Nepal to try them. Many Nepalese restaurants are opening around the world, selling such mouthwatering snacks.

8 Best Nepalese Street foods to try

There are so many Nepalese street foods to explore; this post would be ongoing if we stated them all. Some of the top Nepalese street foods for you to try are:

1.Momos Momos are a dish that is native to Nepal with a Tibetan infusion. These dumplings have slight similarities to the Japanese gyoza, Chinese Dim Sum, Russian Pierogi and Korean Mandu.

The dumplings have vegetables, buff (buffalo), mutton, chicken or pork. A momo is made from wheat flour, onions, garlic, chillies, tomatoes, mustard powder and spices. Momos come in different types of servings which are:

• Steamed Momo: Momo is made by hand, then steamed in a stock-based soup, then served.
• Fried Momo: Momo’s which are steamed and then placed in a wok to fry.
• C Momo: This is a normal Momo dipped into a hot and spicy chilli sauce. It’s also served with chillies and onions.
• Jhol momo: Jhol is Nepalese for gravy and is poured over steamed momos.

2. Chat pate Chat pate is a very simple but tasty dish! It’s made from puffed rice, which looks similar to breakfast cereal.

The puffed rice also includes broken, raw noodles, peas, onion, coriander, tomatoes, cucumber, chilli and spices. Often these are prepared on the roadside and are served in a newspaper cone. In Nepal, often they eat these snacks with a piece of cardboard that doubles up as a spoon.

3. Sekuwa Sekuwa derives from the Limbu culture in the east of Nepal, and it’s a local snack that involves roasted meat. The meat is usually mutton, boar, pork, chicken or buffalo. The meat is marinated in spices and herbs and left to sit for some time. Then coriander, onion and lemon juice is added. The meat is cooked on a natural wood fire and served on skewers.

4. Sel Roti Sel Roti is a mouthwatering sweet ring-shaped bread usually served at religious festivals. The bread is so tasty that you can commonly find it from street food vendors. By this description, you’re probably thinking they sound like a doughnut, but they’re quite different.

A sel roti is made from rice flour, milk, flour, sugar and clarified butter. The dough is poured into a ring shape in a pan and fried. The sel roti is often served with tea, yoghurt or cooked vegetables.

5. Juju Dhau Juju dhau is a yoghurt that derives from one of Kathmandu’s three ancient cities, Bhaktapur. This curd is white and often served in a clay pot.

6. Yomari Yomari is a Newar dish originating from Kathmandu. It is a steamed dumpling that has a fish shape and is made from rice flour. Inside the dumpling, there is a sweet filling known as Chakku.

7. Pani Puri

Pani Puri originally comes from India but is a popular street food found all over Nepal. In Nepal, they have their own twist by adding different ingredients. This snack is a small savoury round ball with a hollow inside filled with onions, chutney, chilli powder, potatoes and more. It also has a liquid inside it, and when you eat it, you place the whole snack in your mouth.

8. Bhakka Bhakka is a street food that derives from the villages of East Nepal. It’s served in the winter and is given to locals to warm them up. This dish is typically a rice cake served with salt, chilli and sometimes battered potato inside.

Normally there is filling, and the rice cake is wrapped over to make a kind of sandwich. The taste of this dish is quite bland, but it’s spongy and filling. You can mainly find this in Eastern Nepal and a few places in Kathmandu.