What to eat in Nepal, and what to order on the trail

Dal bhat, and why the joke is true

A plate of dal bhat is rice, lentil soup, a seasonal vegetable curry and pickle, sometimes with greens and sometimes with curd. It's the national meal, eaten twice a day by most of the country, and in trekking lodges it comes with free refills.

The porters say 'dal bhat power, twenty-four hour', and they mean it. It's high in carbohydrate and protein, freshly cooked and refilled as often as you like, and it's what the kitchen is already making, so it reaches your table faster and fresher than anything else on the menu.

Eat it with your right hand if you want to do it the local way, mixing the dal into the rice with your fingers. Nobody minds a spoon, but everybody will notice if you use your left.

Thakali food, our favourite version of the national dish

The Thakali people come from the Thak Khola, the upper Kali Gandaki around Marpha and Tukuche, and their dal bhat is the one that made the rest of Nepal pay attention.

It comes down to the details: black lentils, a properly spiced vegetable, dried mutton or chicken curry, gundruk soup, and a spread of small dishes instead of one plate. Restaurants in Pokhara and Kathmandu serve it as 'Thakali khana', and it's worth looking for. Our Jomsom Muktinath trek sleeps in Tukuche and walks through Marpha, right where it comes from, and the food is a fair reason on its own to do that trek. Marpha puts apples into everything, from pie and brandy to the dried rings on every counter.

Newari food, which is a different cuisine entirely

The Newars of the Kathmandu valley have their own kitchen, and it's nothing like lodge food. Bara is a savoury lentil pancake. Chatamari is a rice-flour crepe often called Nepali pizza, which undersells it. Choila is buffalo grilled and tossed with mustard oil and chilli, and yomari is a steamed dumpling with molasses inside.

Samay baji is the set piece: beaten rice, choila, black soybeans, ginger, egg and rice spirit. It's festival food that visitors can now find in restaurants, and our Kathmandu loop includes a Newari dinner in Patan.

Bhaktapur's juju dhau, 'king curd', is a thick sweet yoghurt set in clay pots, and it's worth the trip on its own.

The everyday things worth trying

Momos, obviously. They're steamed or fried dumplings, buff or vegetable, served with a tomato-sesame achar. Order jhol momo, which come in a thin spiced broth.

Sel roti is a sweet ring of fried rice batter, eaten at festivals and sold at bus stops.

Gundruk is fermented leafy greens, usually as a sour soup. An acquired taste, and an ancient way of preserving food.

Dhido is a stiff mash of buckwheat or millet eaten with curry instead of rice. It's common in the hills and increasingly served as heritage food.

Chiya, sweet milk tea with cardamom and ginger, is drunk constantly and everywhere, and it's the correct answer to almost any situation.

Drinking

Tongba, from the east, is fermented millet in a wooden pot, topped up with hot water as you go and drunk through a straw. It's warming, sociable and stronger than it seems.

Raksi is a clear home-distilled spirit, offered widely in villages. Strength varies enormously.

Marpha apple brandy, from the Kali Gandaki, is the local souvenir worth carrying home.

Local beer is fine and cold. At altitude, drink far less than you would at home, because alcohol and acclimatisation don't mix. Above 3,000 m we'd say skip it entirely.

Eating safely

Cooked food in busy places is generally fine. The risk is water and raw food, so treat all water, skip salads and unpeeled fruit, and be careful with ice.

At altitude, eat vegetarian. Meat above the road head has travelled a long way, often without a fridge, and it's the most common cause of a ruined trek day. Buddhist areas often don't slaughter locally, which tells you where the meat came from. Eat at the lodge you sleep in, too. The room is cheap because the kitchen is the business, and bringing your own supplies into their dining room takes away the margin they live on.

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