My love affair with food started with a small hole-in-the-wall momo joint in Pokhara. It has been years since I have eaten there and the place has long since closed but whenever I think of Pokhara, my mind automatically skips past Machapuchre or the Phewa Lake and goes towards the delicious momo and the blisteringly hot soup from that place. It is just one of the many examples, along with the saccharine sweet tea from my village, chola samosa from Nepalganj, machha fry from Malekhu, of the way I remember and understand places through their food.
For me, food isn’t something that exists in a vacuum as just something that exists to be eaten. Rather, it is an extension of the place and its culture. When I moved to Kathmandu, I could barely contain my excitement. It was a new place with a new sights and sounds and most importantly, new food to eat. My journey of discovering Kathmandu had its ups and downs; places that disappointed, places that exceeded expectations, places that gave be bizarre sicknesses, and so on but it wasn’t until I had a Newari Khaja Set from a small place in Basantapur that I really felt like I was beginning to know Kathmandu. From there on, I began to build a connection to the city. The Swayambhunath Stupa might be peaceful and serene to most but to me, it is the tongue searingly hot Thenkthuk that I ate nearby. Not even the earthquake could destroy Bouddha and Dharahara for me because as long as I knew I could have a taste of their unique momo, they were not truly gone. My first taste of living alone in Kathmandu was formed by the instant Raymun Noodles, as I was shamefully lacking in cooking skills at the time.
My experience of college was defined by the tea and cigarettes in the nearby cafe. It wasn’t long before I had a picture of Kathmandu. To me, that is the best thing about food. I’m not interested in some journey to find the ‘most delicious’ food or any sort of pretentious navel-gazing on the philosophy behind food. Rather, it is the way I managed to build connections to different people and cultures from various places, and the way the food preserved my experiences of those places. It is the conversations that I had over them and the friends I had them with.
