Nepal: Snacks (Khaajaa)

the appetizer:

Nepal's cuisine has been heavily influenced by climate as well as neighboring India. Typical meals include rice, lentils, pickles and curried vegetables.

Nepal

Snacks (Khaajaa)

Chiura, beaten rice, is made by pounding soaked, uncooked rice with a heavy wooden mallet. Easy to carry and requiring no cooking, it's a popular snack with farmers and porters. Served with yogurt, vegetable curry, achaar, and fried meat (chuela), it's an essential element of Newar ritual feasts. Roasted chiura, crunchier and tastier than the plain type, is mixed with yoghurt as a substitute for breakfast cereals. Roasted with butter and sugar, it rivals caramel corn. Popped rice (bhuja) is the Nepali equivalent of Rice Krispies, popped in a pan, in hot sand to distribute the heat evenly.

Other favorite snacks include curried potatoes (alu daam), dried peas in sauce (kerau), chewy dried meat (sukuti), and deep-fried triangular dumplings (samosa). Breads vary from fried rings of rice-flour (sel roti) to Gurung corn cakes and the Indian flat, thin wheat-flour disks (chapaati) and the smaller fried puri. Kathmandu's south Indian restaurants offer dosa, huge crispy thin pancakes of lentil flour filled with spiced vegetables and served with several sauces.