Nepali food worth seeking out

Steamed or fried dumplings — buff, chicken or veg — served with tomato-sesame achar. Nepal's favorite snack.

Lentil soup over rice with vegetable curry, greens and pickle. The national plate, and refills are usually free.

A crisp, ring-shaped sweet rice bread fried for festivals like Tihar and Dashain.

A Newari platter built around beaten rice (chiura) with meat, egg, soybeans, ginger and achar.

A thin Newari rice-flour crepe topped with minced meat or egg — sometimes called 'Newari pizza.'

A thick buckwheat or millet porridge eaten with curry and gundruk — hearty hill-country staple food.

Fermented leafy greens, dried and made into a tangy soup or pickle — a Nepali pantry essential.

A steamed sweet rice-flour dumpling filled with molasses and sesame, made for the Newari Yomari Punhi festival.

A Tibetan-origin noodle soup with vegetables and meat in a spiced broth — warming, filling food across the high hills and trekking trails.

Skewered, marinated meat grilled over wood or coals — smoky roadside fare, with Dharan's version the most famous in the country.

Dried, spiced buff or goat meat, eaten as a chewy snack or tossed into a fiery sandheko salad — a favourite with a drink.

A savoury Newari patty of ground black lentils, fried until set and often topped with an egg or minced meat.

Spiced grilled buff, fired with mustard oil, chilli and garlic and served with beaten rice — a classic Newari meat dish.

A hearty soup of nine sprouted beans, traditionally eaten at the Newari festival of Kwati Punhi during Janai Purnima.

A tangy curry of potatoes, fermented bamboo shoots (tama) and black-eyed beans — sour, soupy and distinctly Nepali.

Stinging-nettle soup, a green of the hills cooked down until mild and earthy — often spooned over dhido.

The “king of yoghurts” — a rich, creamy sweet buffalo-milk curd set in clay pots, a speciality of Bhaktapur.