Thursday, May 2, 2013

Dal bhat twice a day every day for ever

Lentils and Rice Dominate the Nepali Diet


Dal Bhat, although delicious, healthy and varied, is way too overserved and overeaten!

What is it?

Dal Bhat is the national Nepali dish. It always has rice and lentils accompanied by a few side dishes of various vegetables and sometimes a little bit of meat. It is a fairly healthy dish: you get steamed rice, the lentils are in a stew that is borderline soup, usually there are potatoes, the rest of the vegetables are lightly fried, you also get a fried papad (aka papadum) which is a very thin and crispy flour 'cracker' (sometimes you can also get a prawn cracker instead) and then a few pieces of meat (if you order non-veg) are served in a curry. Dal Bhat is usually served on a large metal dish and the lentils are served separately in a small bowl.

Difference in taste? At this point we thought this was the best Dal Bhat we'd ever had. Our guide later confessed it was the absolute worst Dal Bhat he'd ever had in his life. Looking back, he was probably right! (Annapurna Circuit Trek)
 
 
Endless refills
 
The first time we ordered Dal Bhat in Thamel, Kathmandu, we felt very bad because we shared one order and we got unlimited refills; all for one, fixed price. We figured out that free second, third, fourth and more servings are just simply included in the price so you can get as many servings as you can handle. Two is the absolute maximum I ever did but I definitely saw some locals eat twice as much as I could.
 
Dhal Bhat served on the traditional metal plate - this particular one was slim pickins. There were no fresh vegetables available and the spinach was previously dried due to the harsh winter (Chusang, Upper Mustang)

Dal Bhat Power!
 
Dal Bhat gives you strength without making you feel overstuffed and heavy. We enjoyed eating it and it is definitely a healthy food choice. There are enough carbs in Dal Bhat to fill you up, allowing your body to convert them to sugars to power up your day. Since we trekked for 33 days straight and also went on a 10-day rafting trip, Dal Bhat definitely came in handy plus our guides all swore by it -- Energy Bars would face stiff competition in Nepal!


A slight variation on Dal Bhat (on the right): both the curry and lentils were served separately and they gave us plastic instead of metal plates (Manang, Nepal during our trek)
 
 
33-days and counting
 
The main problem I personally have with Dal Bhat is that it is eaten every single day for lunch (served at 10 am) and for dinner (served around 7pm). Nepalis seem to be perfectly content eating Dal Bhat twice a day, every day for eternity. For example, when we started our trek, our guide told us that he and our porter were looking forward to having Dal Bhat twice a day, every day for the entire length of the 33-day trek even though there were many other options. They actually did this! Our whitewater rafting guides would cook us really good meals when we camped: fried fresh caught fish, lasagna and curries but sometimes they would cook Dal Bhat separately and eat that instead.
 
Moderation is key, even for Dal Bhat!
 
I love food but I also love variety in the food I eat. Dal Bhat is a nice dish but there is no way I could have it every single day. Nepali cuisine could really benefit from more variety but innovation in the kitchen could be a pretty big challenge. For now, I'm pretty sure that I've had enough Dal Bhat for the rest of the trip, potentially for the rest of my life...






25 comments:

  1. I know this was posted some time ago Andrea but I understand what you mean because growing up as a boy in England I used to regard dal bhat as the most boring and bland thing ever. One of the best things about being an adult was that I'd never have to eat it again.
    The funny thing though is now that I'm approaching my fifties I seem to be reverting back to my mum's cooking and actually enjoy dal bhat...every now and again at least!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your posts are exactly what I am looking for. They are informative and useful. I am able to learn more new things and knowledge. It's good if you upload articles frequently. Thank you for sharing tips and insight.
    sales pop master
    sales pop master online

    ReplyDelete
  3. It doesn't matter if you are start a added site for bloggers or if you throbbing to make your existing a new special, finding your niche is always the most crucial pension for building and admin a site which will draw to the blogging community currency converter free
    currency converter app download

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great! it its really informative and innovative keep us posted with new updates. its was really valuable. thanks a lot
    https://apps.shopify.com/discount-master
    https://autoketing.com/project/discount-master
    autoketing.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow!, this was a top quality post. In concept I’d like to publish like this as well – taking time and real effort to make a nice article… but what can I say… I keep putting it off and never seem to get something done
    sales pop by autoketing
    sales pop
    https://autoketing.com

    ReplyDelete
  6. iogames 2 player
    abcya online games
    friv land games
    I’m truly enjoying the design and layout of your site. It’s a very easy on the eyes which makes it much more enjoyable for me to come here and visit more often. Did you hire out a designer to create your theme? Exceptional work!

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a fantabulous observe this has been. in no way seen this understandable of beneficial claim. i'm grateful to you and assume more quantity of posts at the side of those. thank you intensely a lot
    gái gọi sinh viên, Gái gọi Mỹ Đình - Đình Thôn, gai goi ha noi, gái gọi Nguyễn Khánh Toàn, gái gọi Xuân Thủy

    ReplyDelete
  8. Games Flyordieio
    Free Dynamons evolution
    Crayon shinchan adventure online
    Took me time to read all the comments, but I really enjoyed the article. It proved to be Very helpful to me and I am sure to all the commenters here! It’s always nice when you can not only be informed, but also entertained!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I wanted to thank you for this excellent read!! I definitely loved every little bit of it. I have you bookmarked your site to check out the new stuff you post. Excellent info! I’m also an expert in this topic so I can understand your effort very well. Thanks for the huge help.
    4 player sheep party best online game
    Ice cream maker game online
    Colorzzle online

    ReplyDelete
  10. Elsa breakup drama best online game
    Fire truck crazy race games for boy
    Unblock the ball games online
    i never know the use of adobe shadow until i saw this post. thank you for this! this is very helpful. i love reading this article so beautiful!!great job!

    ReplyDelete
  11. 2player best free online games
    friv Games to play
    io jogos for school
    You’ve made some decent points there. I looked on the internet for more information about the issue and found most people will go along with your views on this website.

    ReplyDelete

  12. food games online
    basketball games
    soccer games online
    You’ve made some decent points there. I looked on the internet for more information about the issue and found most people will go along with your views on this website.

    ReplyDelete
  13. our posts are exactly what I am looking for. They are informative and useful. I am able to learn more new things and knowledge. It's good if you upload articles frequently. Thank you for sharing tips and insight k8

    ReplyDelete

Share your thoughts!