Nepal's Street Snacks: What to Try Between Meals

Nepalis eat two main meals a day, with a long gap between. That gap is filled by khaja, snacks, and the late afternoon is when the streets come alive with carts, baskets and smoking grills. Trying a few is one of the cheapest and most entertaining ways to eat in the country.

Sour, spicy and crunchy

Chatpate. The defining street snack. The vendor tips puffed rice into a steel bowl, adds crushed dry instant noodles, chopped onion, tomato, coriander, boiled potato, green chilli, a squeeze of lime, salt, chilli powder and a splash of mustard oil, then stirs it furiously and serves it in a paper cone with a bit of card for a spoon. It is tangy, hot and addictive. Ask for "piro kam" if you want less chilli.

Pani puri. Hollow, crisp shells the size of a golf ball are cracked open, filled with spiced mashed potato and dunked in a pot of sour, peppery tamarind water. You are handed them one at a time and must eat each in a single mouthful before it collapses. A plate is usually six or eight.

Aloo nimki and chana chatpat. Variations on the theme using crisp wheat crackers or boiled chickpeas instead of puffed rice.

Titaura. Not a dish but a whole category of sweet, sour, salty and spicy preserved fruit, made from hog plum, mango and other fruits, sold from jars in tiny shops and loved by schoolchildren.

Fried and filling

Samosa. Triangular pastries stuffed with spiced potato and peas, served with a thin, tangy sauce. A staple of tea shops.

Aloo chop. Mashed potato patties dipped in chickpea batter and deep-fried.

Pakoda. Fritters of sliced onion, potato, spinach or cauliflower in spiced batter.

Egg roll and wraps. Flatbread rolled around fried egg, vegetables or meat with sauces, a more recent urban favourite.

Chowmein. Stir-fried noodles with cabbage and a little meat or egg, cooked in a wok on the cart. It has become so common that many Nepalis think of it as a local dish.

Grilled

Sekuwa. Chunks of marinated meat, usually goat, pork, chicken or buffalo, threaded on skewers and grilled over wood charcoal. The marinade includes garlic, ginger, cumin, chilli and mustard oil. It is served with puffed or beaten rice and a spicy relish. Towns along the eastern highway are famous for it, and in the cities sekuwa corners fill up after dark.

Sausages and grilled corn. Fried sausages on sticks are everywhere. In the monsoon months, corn cobs roasted over coals and rubbed with lime, salt and chilli are sold on street corners.

Sweet

Jeri. Bright orange spirals of batter, deep-fried and soaked in sugar syrup. In the Kathmandu Valley they are eaten for breakfast with a soft, slightly sweet fried bread called swari, the hot syrup soaking into the bread.

Lal mohan. Soft, dark balls of milk solids in syrup.

Barfi and peda. Fudge-like milk sweets, plain or flavoured with coconut, cardamom or pistachio, sold by weight in sweet shops.

Lassi. A thick yoghurt drink, sweet and topped with nuts and dried fruit, sold in glasses at busy junctions in the old city.

Kulfi. Dense frozen milk dessert on a stick, sold from carts in summer.

Where to look

• Around schools, colleges and offices in the late afternoon.

• At busy junctions in old market areas, such as the lanes between Asan and New Road in Kathmandu.

• Near bus parks and temples.

• Evening food streets that have sprung up in several city neighbourhoods.

• In the Terai towns, where the street food scene leans towards North Indian flavours and is especially rich.

Eating safely

Street food carries some risk for unaccustomed stomachs. A few habits reduce it considerably.

1. Choose busy stalls. High turnover means fresh ingredients.

2. Prefer food cooked hot in front of you: fried snacks, grilled meat, noodles.

3. Be careful with water-based items. The flavoured water in pani puri and the ice in drinks are the usual culprits. Some newer shops advertise filtered water; these are a safer place to try it.

4. Watch how money and food are handled. A vendor who uses separate hands or utensils is taking care.

5. Carry hand sanitiser and use it before eating.

6. Start small during your first few days and build up.

A sample afternoon

Begin with a cone of chatpate, follow it with a plate of pani puri from a clean-looking shop, then find a sekuwa grill as the light fades, and finish with a hot jeri or a glass of lassi. The whole tour will cost less than a single restaurant main course, and you will have eaten the way the city does.