Nepalese vs Indian food: what’s the difference?

If you have eaten in a British curry house, much of a Nepalese menu will look familiar: rice, dal, curries, breads from the tandoor. Sit down to a meal in Nepal, though, and the flavours feel different. Nepal sits between India and Tibet, and its cooking borrows from both while keeping a character of its own.

The everyday meal: dal bhat

Ask anyone in Nepal what they eat and the answer is dal bhat. Dal is a lentil soup, bhat is boiled rice, and together with tarkari (a vegetable curry), a little pickle and some greens they make up the meal most families eat twice a day. Meat curry, often goat or chicken, is added on special occasions or when it can be afforded. It is simple, filling food, and a good plate of dal bhat is the measure of a home cook.

Flavours you won’t find in a curry house

• Timur: a Himalayan pepper related to Sichuan pepper, with a citrus aroma and a gentle tingle. It turns up in chutneys, pickles and grilled meats.
• Jimbu: a dried Himalayan herb from the onion family, fried in ghee to give dal a savoury, garlicky depth.
• Mustard oil: pungent and peppery, used for cooking and for dressing dishes such as choila.
• Achar: pickles and chutneys of every kind, from tomato and sesame to radish, served with almost every meal.
• Fresh garlic, ginger and coriander, used generously, with lighter, brothier sauces than the cream-rich curries of many British restaurants.

The food of the Kathmandu valley

The Newar people of the Kathmandu valley have one of the richest food traditions in South Asia. Their feasts include choila (grilled, spiced meat), bara (savoury lentil pancakes) and samay baji, a festival platter of beaten rice, meat, beans and pickles. Momo, too, is closely linked with Newar traders.

A few Nepali words on our menu

• Kukhura: chicken. Lasuni kukhura is garlic chicken.
• Khasi ko masu: goat meat. Ours is a goat curry on the bone.
• Macha: fish. Malekhu is a riverside town famous for its fish, which gives macha malekhu its name.
• Farsi: pumpkin, as in our Farsi Lamb, slow cooked with yellow pumpkin.
• Aloo: potato, as in Gurkhali aloo, baby potatoes with chillies and garlic.

And Indian food?

“Indian food” covers the cooking of a whole subcontinent, but the curry-house dishes most of us know in the UK, such as korma, tikka masala, madras and balti, grew out of North Indian, Mughal and Bangladeshi traditions adapted for British tastes. Many have their own surprising histories, which we cover in our guide to curry-house classics.

Try both at Namaste Gurkha

Our menu brings the two together. Start with momo or lamb sekuwa, try a Nepalese signature dish such as khasi ko masu, lasuni kukhura or Gurkha Rifle, and keep the curry-house favourites for the table to share. See the full list on our menu.