Dal Bhat Explained: How to Eat Nepal's National Meal

There is a saying printed on T-shirts in every trekking town: "Dal bhat power, 24 hour." It is a joke with a core of truth. Dal bhat is what most Nepalis eat, usually twice a day, and what keeps porters moving uphill with loads that would flatten most visitors. Understanding it is the quickest way into the country's food.

What it is

Dal means lentils, cooked into a thin, spiced soup. Bhat means boiled rice. Together they form the base of a set meal that always includes several other elements:

• Tarkari: one or two vegetable dishes, often potatoes with cauliflower, beans, pumpkin or whatever is in season, cooked with turmeric, cumin and garlic.

• Saag: wilted greens, typically mustard leaves or spinach, lightly fried.

• Achar: a pickle or relish. It may be a fresh tomato and chilli paste, fermented radish, or something sour made with sesame or hog plum. This is the flavour kick.

• Papad: a thin, crisp lentil wafer.

• Sometimes dahi (yoghurt), a slice of raw carrot or radish, a wedge of lime and a green chilli.

A non-vegetarian version adds a small bowl of masu, meat curry, usually chicken, goat or buffalo.

Everything arrives on a metal plate, with the rice in the middle and the accompaniments in small bowls or in portions around the edge.

How to eat it

Pour some dal over a section of the rice, add a little vegetable and pickle, and mix. Nepalis eat with the right hand, using the fingertips to gather a mouthful and the thumb to push it in. Visitors are always given a spoon, and nobody minds which you use. If you try the hand method, use only the right; the left is considered unclean.

Mix as you go, not all at once, and adjust each bite. The pleasure is in the combinations.

The refill rule

Dal bhat is, by custom, unlimited. As your plate empties, someone will come round with pots offering more rice, more dal and more vegetables. Meat and yoghurt are usually single servings. This is why it is the best-value meal on any menu, and why trekkers order it day after day.

Accept as much as you want. When you have had enough, hold a hand over your plate and say "pugyo", which means "enough". Otherwise the refills will keep coming.

Avoid leaving a large amount uneaten; take a little at a time instead.

When it is eaten

The traditional pattern is two main meals: one in mid-morning, around nine to eleven, and one in the evening, around seven or eight, with tea and snacks in between. In lodges and restaurants you can order it for lunch or dinner. Because it is cooked in bulk for everyone, it often arrives faster than individually prepared dishes, and it is fresh.

How it changes across the country

• In the middle hills, expect black or yellow lentils, seasonal greens and fermented leafy vegetables in winter.

• In the Terai plains, the meal leans towards North Indian flavours, with thinner dal, more spice, and sometimes fish.

• In Thakali kitchens, originating from the Mustang region, the set is refined, with buckwheat or millet as an alternative to rice and a distinctive herb in the dal.

• At high altitude, where rice does not grow, it is carried in and costs more. Potatoes feature heavily.

• In poorer or remote hill households, the rice may be replaced by dhindo, a thick porridge of millet or maize flour.

For different diets

Dal bhat is naturally vegetarian unless you order meat, and close to vegan apart from yoghurt and the ghee that is sometimes added to rice or dal. If you avoid dairy, say so when ordering. It is also gluten-free in its basic form, though papad and some pickles may be exceptions. For anyone with a sensitive stomach, it is one of the safer choices because it is freshly cooked and served hot.

Why it matters

In Nepali, the usual way to ask "have you eaten?" translates literally as "have you eaten rice?" The question is a greeting and a way of showing care. Being served dal bhat in someone's home, and being pressed to take a second and third helping, is hospitality in its most direct form.

Eat it at least once in a simple roadside kitchen, once in a Thakali restaurant and once in a mountain lodge after a long day's walk. They will be three different meals with the same name, and by the third you will understand the T-shirt.