Category Archives: Newari Food

Happy New Year 2019

Posted on January 17, 2019 | 5 comments

Hello everyone, 

First of all, a very Happy New Year 2019. 

Hope all of you had a great holiday and are looking forward to an amazing 2019. 

Thank you everyone who sent me emails, dm on Twitter and Instagram. I really appreciate all the love you have been sending my way. 

I know I have been MIA for a while but life has been so busy that it is hard to sit down and write but I have decided to make at more effort this year. 

So much has happened in the last few months so I thought I will give you a quick update. 

In August, we bought a new place and moved in and that is one of the biggest reason why I am so busy. Before moving we were busy packing and I couldn’t have imagined how much stuff we had accumulated. It took us more than two weeks to pack, a whole day to move and I am still unpacking boxes and fixing stuff in our new house. 

One of the reason we decided to move was to get a place with a backyard. Now that Chhori is growing up, we realised that she needs more space to be active so our unit was feeling too small. 

After moving, Chhori has been really happy enjoying the stairs and the backyard. 

In September, we celebrated Teej with friends and family.

We also celebrated father’s day which was great. Chhori helped me bake and we surprised AS with breakfast in bed. 

We also celebrated Nepali Father’s Day.

October was super busy with Dashain as we had so many things to do and so many people to visit but I am not complaining as we are able to celebrate this big festival even though we are not in Nepal. 

Then on 28 October, we celebrated my birthday with visit to a circus and an amazing lunch. AS organized the surprise for us and Chhori and I had a great time.  

In November, we did Ghar Puja for our new place as we had for the previous one.

It was followed by Tihar. We had great time as Chhori is old enough to understand and she enjoyed each ceremony.

She loved her gift from her brother for Bhai Tika. 

December was busy at both work and home. We celebrated Christmas with friends and family and it was AS birthday on 28. We celebrated the traditional way with sagun and of course cake 🙂 .  

At the end of the month, we went to Melbourne for our holiday. I will write more about it in my next post. Till then please keep reading my blog and sending me your love and support. 

Take care. 

 M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO 

5 Comments

Posted in Nepali Culture, Nepali Festivals, Nepali food, Newari Culture, Newari Food, Personal

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Nepali New Year 2074 and Tasting Nepal

Posted on April 14, 2017 | 11 comments

As I have mentioned before, Nepal follows a different calendar than the Gregorian calendar so Nepali New Year falls on mid-April instead of 1st of January. Bikram Sambat or Nepali Calendar or Nepali patro is approximately 56 years and 8½ months ahead of the Gregorian calendar. Unlike Gregorian months, the lengths of Nepali months are not predetermined, and change from year to year, varying from 29 days to 32 days. The year 2074 started yesterday as 1st of Baishak, 2074.

In Nepal, people celebrate Nepali New Year in many different ways. Please read this post to learn more about celebration of Nepali New Year in Nepal.

For us, in Australia, this year had been great as the New Year Eve fell on Easter long weekend so it is double celebration here. I will write more about about Easter long weekend soon.

Just want to wish everyone celebrating a

Happy New Year 2074!!!

To mark the occasion, on Saturday 8th of April, “Tasting Nepal “, a food festival entirely dedicated to Nepali cuisine was organized for the first time here in Sydney.

As there was to be food and entertainment, we decided to go and enjoy the festival.

The festival featured food and culture from various parts of Nepal including Momo, Sekuwa, sel roti, chatpat, puri, jeri, samay baji and many more varieties from various restaurants in Sydney.

But the highlight of the event was a stall of Bajeko Sekuwa, one of the popular restaurant chains in Kathmandu. The chef came all the way from Nepal just to join the event and I am sure he was not disappointed as there was a long queue for the sekuwa throughout the day.

Personally for me, the highlight was the pyramid of Samay baji displayed by Guthi Australia. Check out the video and see the detail yourself.

I was surprised to know that even AS hadn’t seen such a pyramid in Nepal before. For me, it was a yearly thing that they did in the temples near us.

As the number of Nepalese are increasing in Sydney, it was no surprise that the festival was busy. We had a great time with our friends and family as well.

Wishing all of you a very Happy start of new year once again from 3 of us.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for riding along this journey with me.

I appreciate all the love and support you guys have given me throughout the year and I hope you continue to do so this year too.

Till next time, take care

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

11 Comments

Posted in Foodie, Nepal, Nepali Culture, Nepali Festivals, Nepali food, Newari Culture, Newari Food

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Chhori’s first Tihar

Posted on November 2, 2016 | 4 comments

Tihar, the second biggest festival for Hindus after Dashain, was from 28th Oct to 1st Nov this year. Please click here to know more about the festival.

This year was Chhori’s first Tihar celebration so I wanted to make sure she had a great memory of the celebration.

bhai-tika-12 bhai-tika-7

Tihar is celebrated for five days and here are some photos from our celebration this year.

  • Kaag / Kag (crow) Puja

kaj-puja-2 kaj-puja-1

  • Kukur (dog) Puja

kukur-puja-2 kukur-puja-1

  • Laxmi Puja and Gai (cow) Puja

laxmi-puja-4 laxmi-puja-5 laxmi-puja-3 laxmi-puja-6 laxmi-puja-2

  • Goru Puja,Gobhardan Puja , Mha Puja and Nepal Sambat

As my parents are here this year, it was great to have a whole family celebrating Mha puja.

mha-puja-3 mha-puja-4 mha-puja-1 mha-puja-2

  • Bhai Tika

Chhori does Bhai tika to my nephew. It was so cute to see these little ones performing the ritual.

bhai-tika-15 bhai-tika-14 bhai-tika-13 bhai-tika-1 bhai-tika-9 bhai-tika-16 bhai-tika-4 bhai-tika-5

Hope everyone celebrating had great Tihar too.

Take care everyone,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

4 Comments

Posted in Celebrations, Kathmandu, Nepal, Nepali Culture, Nepali Festivals, Newari Culture, Newari Food

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Newari Gwaramari

Posted on February 23, 2016 | 3 comments

In Kathmandu most of us have happy memories of eating Gwaramari and tea for breakfast during cold winter months.

In Newari “Gwara” means round and “mari” means bread so Gwaramari literally means round bread but to people who have eaten it, it is not just ordinary bread but a very yummy one with a distinct flavour.

I was craving for some Gwaramari for a while so I decided to try making it with a friend. It took us a few attempts to get it right but I am very happy with the end result. It tasted really good.

Ingredients

  • 250 g plain flour
  • 2 teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon ground cumin
  • ½ teaspoon ground coriander
  • Salt to taste
  • 300 ml water
  • 500ml vegetable oil (for deep-frying)

Method

  • In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cumin, coriander and salt.

Nepali Gwaramari (2)

  • Add water slowly stirring continuously to make a thick paste.
  • If you have time, cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight otherwise for at least 2 hours.

Nepali Gwaramari (3)

  • In a deep pan, heat the vegetable oil. The oil is hot enough, if you drop small amount of batter and it quickly rises and becomes brown.
  • Once the oil is hot enough, take a table spoon of mixture and place it gently on the hot oil. The dough will puff up and rise to the top of the pan. You can add multiple balls at the same time.

Nepali Gwaramari (4)

  • Fry them until golden brown.
  • Take it out and use paper towel to soak the extra oil.

Nepali Gwaramari (1)

  • It is best served hot with some Masala tea.

Take care everyone,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

3 Comments

Posted in Foodie, Nepali food, Newari Food, Recipe

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Jwano ko Jhol (Thyme Seeds Soup)

Posted on June 12, 2015 | 7 comments

As I mentioned in my previous post, Jwano ko Jhol is a traditional Nepali soup which is given to new mums to increase their supply of milk. I wasn’t very sure about it before but I now swear by it.

Jwano ko Jhol (1)

Initially when I started drinking it, I had an over supply of milk so I needed to decrease the amount I drank. Then after a while when I stopped drinking it completely, I could feel the supply of my milk went low as well. So I started drinking it in again but in small amount.

Jwana ko jhol is also believed to have lots of health benefits like helping to heal the wounds, relieve body aches and help with cold and cough. Thyme also has potassium, iron, calcium, manganese, magnesium, and selenium for the well-being of our body.

The soup is very easy to make.

Ingredients for 2 cups of soup

  • 2 tea spoon Jwano (Thyme seed)
  • 1/8 teaspoon of turmeric powder
  • 1 tea spoon of fresh ginger garlic paste
  • ½ tea spoon cumin powder
  • ½ teaspoon ghee (clarified butter)
  • Salt as per taste
  • 2 ½ cups water

Method

  • Heat a saucepan over medium heat and add ghee when hot.
  • When ghee is melted, add jwano, turmeric powder, cumin powder, ginger garlic paste and salt and stir them together.

Jwano ko Jhol (2)

  • After about a minute once you smell the ginger garlic flavour add water and let it boil for a few minutes.

Jwano ko Jhol (3)

  • Jwana ko jhol is now ready to serve
  • Enjoy!

Take care everyone till next post.

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

7 Comments

Posted in My pregnancy, Nepal, Nepali food, Newari Food, Recipe

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