Food and Shopping

I know some of you would have had at least 5 posts with pictures of food by this point. With all my allergies food has never been a prominent travel item. I've done quite well eating with the locals though and though I better include one post for memories. By paying a bit extra here for food and a cook, I've been able to enjoy custom Nepali food everyday! I've also done well out at restaurants. Usually the only items I am unable to have are milk tea (VERY common), and the chicken. Milk tea is easily substituted with lemon tea. I rarely have meat, though buffalo and mutton are fairly accessible.

Nepali food is often dal bhat - rice and steamed lentil soup. To this assorted varieties of veggies and meat can be added. Veggies will include cauliflower, potatoes, egg plant, peppers, beans (note, that's what they look like, no idea if actually the same plants). Chicken is often added as well.

Meal after an OT with "shaved" rice. It's not really shaved but I forget the proper term.

Dal bhat out at Baktapor

Shopping is most commonly roadside stalls or shops by the side of the road. The roadside stalls at first shocked me, but it was explained to me that there is no rent to set up shop there. Makes sense to me! Both types of shops are independently owned and bargaining is expected (though tourists can expect to pay the tourist rate everywhere, even after bargaining).

I'm a lousy bargainer and I've tended to default to Salesway, a local "department" store that has a grocery building, hardware / kitchenware building, and alcohol / refrigerated food building. It also has fixed prices and computerized checkouts. Some curious things I've noticed wandering around Salesways: there is no brand protection and there are 5 different brands of corn flakes, Kelloggs Corn Flakes come in many flavours such as mango and strawberry. The houseware section was interesting: the water heater for a shower was priced at 6000 NPR - around 1 month's income for a lot of Nepalis. Hot water is definitely a luxury in this country! (there is one at Canada House).

Corn flakes galore!

There's even soy milk!

Outside of Salesway, even with Christmas lights. Very atypical storefront. And I don't know why the lights are there but they remind me of Christmas :)

More typical shops