Tag Archives: jeri

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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Nepali breakfast treat

Posted on April 18, 2016 | 16 comments

It always feels great when we discover something authentically Nepali in Sydney. Sometimes in life, even a small thing can make you happy and that is what I felt when we discovered that there is a Nepali restaurant which serves Nepali style breakfast.

I think everyone has fond memories from their childhood and one of mine is yummy food for breakfast when in Nepal, like gwaramari, puri, malpuwa, jeri, swari and other delicacies. It is not every day that we eat these foods but usually on weekends I would wait for my dad to come home with some for us.

Last week, one of our friends mentioned that, a Nepali restaurant is serving Nepali style breakfast on the weekends. I couldn’t wait to go and taste them so we went there on Sunday along with my parents and some friends.

We heard that the place gets busy very early and the last time our friends were there they had to wait a while for a table so we went early and I was happy to see most of the tables empty. It was an all-you-can-eat buffet style breakfast.

Nepali food (2)

They served puri, jeri, potatoes curry, brown chick peas, kheer (rice pudding) and tea.  I took a bit of everything and I really enjoyed the breakfast. AS, my parents and friends were very happy with the breakfast as well. Chhori ate some rice pudding and some puri too. These days she really enjoys our food so we try to feed her a little of everything.

Nepali food (1)

The owner was very accommodating as well giving us jeri without sugar syrup fresh off the stove and sugarless tea as my dad is diabetic.

I am sure if I eat this regularly, you won’t be able to recognise me as I can’t control the amount I eat but it is a great place to go occasionally. We already plan to go there in a few months’ time. 🙂

What is your special breakfast? Have you tried any Nepali treats?

Happy Monday everyone and Take care,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

P.S: Do not forget to nominate your favourite blog. NEPALIAUSTRALIAN’s Blog Award 2015

16 Comments

Posted in adora, Foodie, Nepal, Nepali food

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Dakshinkali Temple

Posted on June 14, 2014 | 5 comments

Dakshinkali Temple is located 22 kilometres outside Kathmandu and the last time when I was in Nepal, I went there with my parents.

Dakshinkali Temple is one of the most famous and popular Hindu shrines dedicated to Goddess Kali, “The Black One”. Scowling and emaciated, with protruding tongue and red eyes, decked with a necklace of skulls, Kali is just another form of the great goddess Durga. Kali is believed to be extremely powerful and accomplished. In Hindus holy Vedas and Purans, it is written that she has a blue body with three eyes, each eye is made up of the Sun, the Moon and fire respectively.

The drive from our place to the temple was very scenic once we crossed the ring road area. The roads were windy but I loved the view of old houses and wide green fields.

Legend has it that Daksinkali came into existence after goddess Kali herself appeared in the dream of a Malla king, the ruler of 14th century Nepal. Goddess Kali then commanded the king to build a temple dedicated to her in a very unknown and strange place. As the command was about to be followed, a person said that he already had a stone image of the goddess kali in the same place where the goddess  commanded the king to build the temple. The idol was then left open to the elements as she had commanded and over her head a gilded canopy was erected with four golden serpents. Also images of lord Ganesh, seven Asthamatrikas and a stone Bhairav were erected near her image.

Dakshinkali (2)

Dakshinkali temple is of great importance among those who need her blessing and also among the blessed ones. There is a strong belief in the ability of the goddess to make wishes come true.

Dakshinkali (3)

To satisfy the blood-lust of the goddess, pilgrims take a menagerie of chickens, ducks, goats, sheep, pigs and even the occasional buffalo up the path to the temple to be beheaded and transformed into cuts of meat by the temple priests, who are also skilled butchers.

Dakshinkali (1)

We went there on the weekdays so it was not busy. It took us 10 minutes for our puja and from there we went to another temple on the top of the hill which is called the Mata temple.

Dakshinkali (4)

After puja, we went to one of the local restaurants and had tea and freshly prepared sel, jeri, and malpuwa. Just writing about it, I am salivating as it was really good.

Dakshinkali (5)Dakshinkali (6) Dakshinkali (7) Dakshinkali (8) Dakshinkali (10)

After that my mum did a quick shopping at the local market there as they were selling gundruk, kafal and other items.

Dakshinkali (9)

On the way back home, we also stopped at the Sheka Narayan.

Dakshinkali (12)Dakshinkali (11)Dakshinkali (15)

There is temple on the top and a pond filled with crystal clear water. The pond has different types of fishes swimming around. There was a guy selling a bag of bread to feed the fish. It was a really nice and quiet place compared to Dakshinkali Temple.

Dakshinkali (13) Dakshinkali (14)

Every time I visit places like this, I feel really happy to see all the old Nepali architecture and idols of god which has been preserved from ages past. If you are in Kathmandu, it is a nice place to go for a day trip.

Take care,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

5 Comments

Posted in Kathmandu, Nepal, Nepal 2014

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Last week of Autumn

Posted on June 2, 2014 | 4 comments

Last Saturday was the last day of autumn and winter is officially here.

On Friday after work, we decided to go to eat at our local Vietnamese restaurant. I am a big fan of their rice paper rolls so we ordered that with quails and had Vietnam’s style fried rice. The food was nice and we both loved it. It was a great start of the weekend and we were relaxed walking back home. Sometimes not having to cook seems to take so much stress out of our life :).

Rice paper roll quail

On Saturday morning, I went for my usual run. I normally run with a my friend of mine and it is so easy to go the distance when you have company. We ran for over one and half hours and was glad that my step count reached over 11,000. That really made my morning as I am still counting my steps every day. It was drizzling at one point and I just loved the rain. I got to run in the rain after ages and it was quite refreshing. One of the reasons I love this walking track because we get a great view of the beach no matter what time of the year it is. It is always so rewarding.

Beach

After the run, we had our normal breakfast and waited for my SIL to drop off my nephew. We were babysitting for the afternoon and it was exciting for us. My nephew has grown up so much (gonna be 2 years next month) and is very cheeky. If he makes any mistake, he goes around and kisses everyone so no one will scold him. We had fun watching him, playing with him and running round with him.

my nephew

In the evening, my SIL picked him up so we decided to go to city. It had been a sunny afternoon so it was the perfect evening to go and watch Vivid Sydney. I will share more pics from the day in another post.

Vivid Sydney 2014 (3) Vivid Sydney 2014Vivid Sydney 2014 (4)  Vivid Sydney 2014 (1)Vivid Sydney 2014 (2)

Sunday started very slow as we had no plans. AS was still asleep and as it was cold outside so I decided to stay in bed and paint my nails. I normally do that once a week and I am learning to do it differently this each week. Here is what I ended up with.

nail

When I was almost done, AS work up; I wanted to get out of the bed too but AS asked me to stay in bed and he will fix breakfast for us. I really like these gestures from him and having a lazy and spoiled weekend makes me feel cheerful. I reminded him that we have hardly anything left in the fridge so maybe we need to out for grocery but he assured me we are OK. Therefore, I watched an episode of Downton Abbey while he cooked breakfast. At the back of my mind I was wondering what we are having for breakfast as I knew we were out of bread.

So after almost an hour in the kitchen, AS called me and he served me this for breakfast.

breakfast

Yes we had samosa and deviled eggs and tea. We also had some Jeri (sweets) to finish off the breakfast. I am very pleased as he used what we had to cook and I have to admit he is becoming better and better every day in the kitchen. In addition, he is so romantic and caring 🙂

It was raining in the afternoon so we stayed in, watched a movie and relaxed. By evening I was over with the indoors and stared to become grumpy and of course, my knight in shining armour came to the rescue again. He got a pair of socks for me and asked to put it on. The nhe started a salsa tutorial on YouTube and that was the start of our fun evening in.

AS and I had taken salsa classes before but separately so it was so much fun to learn again and practice together. As salsa dancing can be very intimate, I enjoyed it a lot. After an hour dancing I was in a happy mood as we had so much fun.

I have to admit he is a very good partner as you need male partner to lead and he was doing an excellent job.

Hope you guys had a great weekend too.

Take care,

M from nepaliaustralian

XOXO

4 Comments

Posted in Australia

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