Experiences
Food in Nepal
Kitchens, feasts and markets. Cooking with families, feast days and the dishes that explain a valley better than a museum.
FoodJuju dhau, bara and Khwopa's snack shops
A late-afternoon food walk through Bhaktapur's squares and lanes: juju dhau from the clay bowl, bara and chatamari off the …
FoodKhokana's mustard oil and Karya Binayak walk
Walk from Bungamati via the Ganesh temple of Karya Binayak to Khokana, a Newar village known for mustard oil. See …
FoodNewar khaja trail through the old town
An afternoon of Newar snacks in small family-run khaja ghars: bara, chatamari, chhoyla, kachila, aloo tama, juju dhau and a …
FoodLunch at Newa Lahana, run by Kirtipur's women
A long Newar lunch at a restaurant run by a cooperative of Kirtipur women, in a traditional brick house in …
FoodShape yomari with a Panauti homestay family
Stay a night with a Newar family through Panauti's community homestay network. Help cook dinner, learn to shape yomari dumplings, …
FoodCook a Newar meal in a Patan family kitchen
A hands-on session in a Newar home in Patan's old town: buy vegetables in the local market, then cook bara, …
FoodFish lunch and a farm walk at Begnas bazaar
Walk through the terraces and fish ponds around Begnas with a local host, see how the valley grows rice and …
FoodCook dal bhat and millet roti with a Gurung family
Join a Dhampus family in the kitchen to cook the evening meal: dal, rice, seasonal vegetables, pickles and millet roti, …
FoodA teahouse evening in Ghorepani
Teahouse life at its liveliest: a lodge dining room at 2,874 m around a warm stove, dal bhat refills, Gurung …
FoodVillage homestay at Bhadaure Tamagi
A night with a family in the community homestay village of Bhadaure Tamagi below Panchase: help in the kitchen, eat …
FoodDal bhat and lodge-stove evenings
Spend the evening around the yak-dung stove of a Dingboche lodge, eating dal bhat with refills alongside guides and porters, …
FoodA Sherpa breakfast of riki kur and butter tea
Order riki kur, the Sherpa potato pancake, with butter and somar cheese, and a bowl of salty butter tea before …
FoodNamche's Saturday market at first light
Each Saturday porters and traders who have walked for days from Solu, Okhaldhunga and the Rai villages set out rice, …
FoodButter tea in a Pangboche Sherpa kitchen
Spend an hour with a Pangboche family in the kitchen of a traditional stone house, watching butter tea churned and …
FoodApples, cheese and tea in Salleri bazaar
Walk 20–30 minutes from Phaplu to Salleri, Solukhumbu's district headquarters, to browse its market street of apples, chhurpi, vegetables and …
FoodTharu feast and dance evening
An evening of Tharu food and dance in Amaltari: a thali of rice, lentils, greens, ghonghi snails or river fish …
FoodCook a Tharu meal with your hosts
Join the women of Barauli in the kitchen to cook a Tharu meal on a clay stove: rice, lentils, greens, …
FoodTaas lunch in Bharatpur
After the lakes, stop in Bharatpur or Narayangadh for Chitwan's best-known dish: taas, goat meat marinated in spices and fried, …
FoodChaku, til and tarul: winter festival foods
Taste the foods of Maghe Sankranti at Devghat and in Narayangadh: chaku molasses sweet, sesame til laddu, boiled sweet potato …
FoodA Maithil dahi-chura breakfast
Eat the simplest and most loved Maithil breakfast: chura, beaten rice, with thick dahi, jaggery or sugar and, in January, …
FoodKoshi Barrage and a riverside fish lunch
Visit the Koshi Barrage, built between 1958 and 1962 with 56 gates, watch birds on the water above it, then …
FoodLitti chokha in the Bhojpuri Terai
After a morning in the park, eat like a local in Simara, Birgunj or a highway town: litti baked over …
FoodBhojpuri street food in Simraungadh
Graze through Simraungadh's market with a local guide: sattu sharbat in the hot months, litti chokha from coal fires, jalebi, …
FoodSel roti breakfast in a Devdaha bazaar
Start the Devdaha day like a local: sel roti fresh from the pan, spiced potatoes, curd and sweet tea at …
FoodMorning curd and sweets in Taulihawa bazaar
A short walk through Taulihawa's market, 2 km from Kudan, for clay-pot curd, chiura dahi, fresh jalebi and sweet tea, …
FoodSugarcane country and a glass of fresh ras
A short stop in the cane fields of northern Kapilvastu, where the pillar may once have been used as a …
FoodA Tharu home lunch near Ramgram
Lunch with a Tharu family in a village near Ramagrama: rice, lentils, seasonal greens, fish or snail curry when available, …
FoodFried river fish at Ramdi
On the way to or from the Kali Gandaki country, stop at Ramdi, where the Siddhartha Highway crosses the river, …
FoodNepal's first coffee, on a Gulmi farm
Visit a smallholder coffee farm in Gulmi, the district where Nepal's first coffee was planted in 1938, to see arabica …
FoodKalanamak rice in a Kapilvastu village
Visit a farming family near Taulihawa who grow kalanamak, the black-husked scented rice of the Kapilvastu plain, walk the fields …
FoodApple orchards and the brandy of Marpha
Walk the orchards on the terraces around Marpha with a local grower, see how apples are dried on the rooftops …
FoodTukuche distillery and Mustang fruit brandy
Visit the small distillery in Tukuche that turns the valley's apples, apricots and other fruit into brandy, see the stills, …
Farm day with a Briddim family
Spend a morning in the fields with your host family, depending on the season planting or harvesting potatoes, cutting buckwheat …
FoodApple harvest walk around Sermathang
In autumn, walk through Hyolmo orchards around Sermathang and Tarkeghyang during the apple harvest, taste fruit straight from the tree …
FoodVisit the Kyanjin cheese factory
See where Langtang's yak and nak milk becomes firm yellow cheese, at a small dairy founded on Swiss methods introduced …
FoodEvening in a Langtangpa lodge kitchen
Sit by the stove in a family lodge kitchen and learn how butter tea is churned, how tsampa is eaten …
FoodFarm kitchen dal bhat at Nuwakot
Help pick greens in a farm garden and cook a Nepali dinner over a wood or gas fire: lentils, rice, …
FoodSekuwa evening on the ridge
Dinner at a roadside grill on the Bhedetar ridge: skewers of pork, chicken or goat marinated in spices and cooked …
FoodNewar food and yomari in Chainpur
A cooking session with a Newar family in Chainpur bazaar, making yomari dumplings and other Newar dishes, with stories of …
FoodOrange orchards around Dhankuta
A winter walk through farm villages and tangerine orchards around Dhankuta, meeting growers, tasting fruit straight from the tree and …
FoodHigh tea garden visit between Dhankuta and Hile
A booked visit to a specialty tea garden on the ridges between Dhankuta and Hile, where orthodox tea is grown …
FoodTongba and momo in a Hile kitchen
An evening in one of Hile's family kitchens, sipping hot tongba through a bamboo straw, eating momo and thukpa, and …
FoodFarm day and homestay night near Ilam
A night with a farming family in the hills around Ilam: milking time, a walk to the cardamom and ginger …
FoodTea tasting in Ilam bazaar
A tasting of orthodox Ilam teas across flushes and styles in the bazaar's tea shops, with a guide who explains …
FoodFikkal and Pashupatinagar market morning
A morning in the two market towns near Kanyam: Fikkal, the highway bazaar and municipal centre, and Pashupatinagar on the …
FoodAn evening in Phungling bazaar
A walk through Phungling, Taplejung's hill-top district town, to eat local food including kinema, the Limbu fermented soybean dish, and …
FoodA Rai home kitchen in the Arun valley
An evening meal cooked by a Rai family near Tumlingtar, with dishes such as wachipa, millet dishes and seasonal greens, …
FoodWalk the red rice terraces of the Tila valley
Follow field paths along the Tila river through terraces of marshi, Jumla's red rice, grown at around 2,400 m and …
FoodApples, beans and wool in Khalanga bazaar
Wander Jumla's main bazaar with a local guide, tasting apples, buying marshi rice and Jumli beans, and looking for the …