(light airy music) - Hi, I'm Beryl,
and today we are eating Nepalese food.
I have teamed up with GrubHub and five of my subscribers,
Rasu,
Eesha,
Jyoti,
Kritishma,
and Radhe
to help us figure out
how to order off of a Nepalese menu like a pro.
GrubHub gave me a discount code.
It is BERYL and that will give you
$5 off an order of $15 or more.
So, if you are inspired at the end of this video
to order Nepalese food,
you can do so with a discount.
I'm really excited because honestly,
I don't actually know that much about Nepalese food.
So, this will be a learning experience for all.
- My name is Rasu, I'm from Nepal.
I live in Narayangarh.
It's a town approximately 150 kilometers southwest
from the capital city of Kathmandu.
- I am Kritishma.
I was born in Kathmandu, Nepal.
I now live in Maryland, United States.
So, for the appetizer, I think you should definitely try
the Chicken Samay Baji.
- [Rasu] Samay Baji is a typical Newari dish
that contains a variety of side dishes with baji.
That is beaten rice in Newari language.
- [Kritishma] This particular dish consists of beaten rice,
black eyed peas, chickpeas, roasted soybeans, potatoes,
spinach, chhoila, radish pickle
topped with meat, wo or bara.
- Newari people are indigenous people of Kathmandu.
They have a rich culture and unique food scenario.
Actually, I'm also from Newari community.
We have to make Samay Baji for our religious
and cultural functions as well as an offering from the gods.
Although other appetizers are also good choices,
I think that Samay Baji will be
a good introduction to Nepali cuisine.
- Well, isn't this pretty as a picture?
So much color.
There's a lot going on on this plate.
A lot of beautiful smells.
I think I just kind of go.
I think I just gotta dive in.
I'm just diving in.
There's beaten rice at the bottom,
which is cool, it's like a dried, crispy rice.
(rice crackling)
Crunchy.
There's a lot more spice (tongue smacking)
than I was expecting.
Hmm. Boiled chickpeas are so good.
I love the tiny boiled chickpeas.
This is...
carrots.
(carrots crunching)
Whoa.
What is in that?
(tongue smacking)
(exhales sharply)
That's really hot.
Whatever that is, that is...
that's gonna give you arm hair.
It's good.
I just... please, let these black eyed peas
be a cooling element.
(sighs)
They were.
There are so many different textures
happening in here and so many different flavors.
I find this whole thing to be extraordinarily enjoyable
and definitely filling.
I feel like this might give me a sense of some of the spices
and flavors that I'll taste with more Nepalese dishes.
There's just like, it kind of ranges
from hot to mild on here, which I enjoy.
Thing in the middle tastes like a falafel (chuckles)
I think.
All right, and we're finally gonna go for the meat here.
I got chicken.
It's like a grilled tandoori-style chicken.
It's really good.
You can like, taste kind of charcoal on it.
Oh, that's really, really good.
The chicken was 10 outta 10.
This would definitely be a really good dish to order
and everybody can share it.
Everyone can have like a little bite of everything
and I do agree, like I feel like I have now been set
up to get a really good understanding of Newari cuisine.
So yes.
What's next?
- My name is Radhe.
I live in Germany, but originally I am from Nepal.
I'm from a small town in southeast of Nepal
in a district called Saptari.
- Hello everyone. Namaste.
My name is Eesha.
I am from Kathmandu, Nepal, the capital part of Nepal.
Let's order the appetizer.
I would recommend you to try sukuti.
Sukuti is a jerky.
- This is most traditionally made from buffalo meat.
Buffalo meat is actually very popular in Nepal.
- [Eesha] It's dried and then it's fried
and then it's blended into spices.
- [Radhe] This is a very good drinking food.
- And it goes very good with beer.
- Honestly, I'm still struggling from that carrot surprise.
I call it carrot surprise
because it was a surprise and there was carrots in it.
I actually am not totally sure what else was in it.
(exhales sharply)
Will the spiced meat help? TBD.
This kind of reminds me
of the Nigerian dish that I ordered that was
like a jerkied type of meat.
Ooh.
It is like jerky but much softer
but it's got that kind of chewiness texture to it
and that like, crispiness on the outside.
This is not very spicy at all.
It just like, is flavored and spiced in that way
but I don't find this to be spicy.
I totally get how this would be amazing with beer.
This is-
Honestly, I am usually not a huge meat-eater
when left to my own devices and so oftentimes
I overlook a lot of meat dishes when I'm going out to eat
because I'm just like, eh, you know, I like the veggies.
This is so yummy.
I would've probably never thought to order this.
I absolutely love it.
The texture is so good, the flavor is so good.
It's unlike anything I've ever had.
But it's not so strange that I'm like, whoa!
It somehow has that comforting middle ground
of like, exciting and comforting at the same time.
I can see why this dish would be really good with beer
but instead of ordering beer
I was recommended something else.
- A very popular alcohol which originated
in the Newari community is chyang.
It's fermented rice wine.
It's not that strong.
It's maybe five or 6%, but it's really, really good.
Cold chyang is like, great.
- So...
(glass and bottle thumping on table)
You see this? You see this?
When I ordered this, it was 20 bucks
and I live in New York City.
I just assumed it was gonna be like,
a large cup of alcohol
not an entire mixer bottle full.
This is a lot of chyang, which I guess...
I guess I'm just a chyang kind of girl now
because I got a lot of it to go through.
Cheers.
(lips smacking)
It tastes like sake.
It's got that kind of sourness to it.
It's very light.
I could see how this could be dangerous.
We're gonna do just fine.
(laughs)
This dried mix on the side is something that I've seen
in Indian cuisine before.
(food crunching)
Kind of like a bhel.
B-H-E-L.
It's got a little bit of sweetness, a lot of crunchiness.
I bet this would go good together.
Come here.
Mmm.
Yeah.
This was so... I'm- okay.
Next dish.
I'm excited, 'cause you know what's up next.
Momos.
- Hi, my name's Jyoti.
I'm from Kathmandu, which is the capital city of Nepal.
You can't talk about Nepali food
without talking about momos.
- No Nepali food adventure is fulfilled without momos.
- Of course you have to get momos.
- Of course you have to go for momos.
- It's basically dumplings and you can have any sort
of filling that you want in it.
- I would like you to try jhol momo.
Jhol means soup or stew,
and the momos are then put into it,
in a bowl and then you eat it very hot.
It's very common to eat it in a cold, rainy day.
Whenever I used to get off work,
my dad used to pick me up
and we used to eat typical Newari jhol momo
made out of buffalo meat
and it used to just feel so homely
and like it feels very good.
It's like a perfect comfort food.
- Momos, momos.
I have had momos in India before.
There's a place in New Delhi that sells them cooked
in a tandoor that is so yummy.
One of the things that I do know about momos is
that the different shapes allow you to differentiate
between the different fillings
which I think is really cool because sometimes, you know
if you order a couple different types of
dumplings and you don't know what's in the middle
until you take a bite.
The vegetarian ones are longer,
the chicken ones are rounder.
So these are veg momos.
(slurping)
That is heaven.
I'm gonna say something radical.
I think momos might be the best
of all the dumplings out there.
I don't know. It's a hot take,
but it's my take and it is just something I believe.
Jhol momo, this is my first time having this.
The sauce has like a little bit of sweetness to it.
It's very, very soothing and with the mildness
of the momo it's just-
it goes so well together.
Why I think momos are some of the best dumplings is
I think the- like they're very thin so there's really not
that much dough on them.
The pleating is done so that there's lots
of these little folds and so they're always very,
very juicy, and I know like, all dumplings are juicy.
I just think that like there's something about a momo.
I feel like that'll be like a really cute poem
or a song, like, there's something about a momo.
I do feel like these are a little big
but like can I, do I bite it in half?
I did it in one bite last time.
(slurping)
I did it in in one bite again.
(clears throat)
11 out of 10.
This is amazing.
I know that we're gonna do another momo,
so let's hold off and let's do-
what's the other momo we're having?
- I use usually like the classics
so I would recommend you to try the steamed chicken momo.
It's usually just made from ground chicken,
maybe some cabbage, some spring onion, cilantro,
a lot of ginger and garlic, and momo masala.
And you pack that into a little dumpling,
you steam it for a few minutes.
- It is served with a small portion of spicy homemade sauce.
- [Jyoti] Nepali people will eat about 20 to 30
of these in one sitting.
We like to joke around and say that
you're not a Nepali person if you don't like momos
or if you can't eat a lot of momos.
- So you can kind of see what I was talking about,
how these momos are circular
where the vegetarian ones were more oval.
"Ovicular"- no, oval.
It's not "ovicular."
I just wanted it to be the same.
These are going into a sauce.
(lips smacking)
It's not the same sauce as the jhol sauce.
Chicken's good.
(spoon clattering against plate)
Kind of like the veg ones a little more.
The chicken is pretty mild to me.
If it had maybe like a little bit more spice,
but there's a lot of filling.
Hold on, let me like...
Can you see this?
This is a stuffed momo.
The idea of eating 30 of these is truly shocking.
I'm curious, like, maybe because I'm in America
the portion sizes are American portion sizes,
so they're a lot bigger.
There's no way that I could eat 30, there's just-
there is no way.
I could probably eat 10 as like, the meal and that's it.
(gulping)
They're good but 30, I think would have me asleep
on the floor.
Somebody heard me say chicken momo
and they were curious.
Come here, come, come here.
She's like, "Did somebody say chicken momos?"
Should I give her a little taste of the chicken?
Oh, she loves it.
Asha is a Nepalese momo stan, just like her mom.
(laughing)
Okay, we're gonna move on to entrees.
What's up?
- For your entree, Beryl,
I think you should order chatamari.
And chatamari is like a-
It looks and feels like a crepe.
- I wouldn't say it's a pizza because a lot of people
explain it saying it's a Nepalese take on a pizza,
but it's like a crepe.
It's made out of rice flour.
- And it is do with minced meat and sometimes egg.
- I think almost every country in the world have
their own savory version of pancake
and this is Nepal's version of pancake
and you see definitely try it.
- [Eesha] And then you eat it.
It tastes amazing actually.
- Okay, I have my guest. She's not leaving.
Gave her that one bite of momo and she's here to stay.
I have the chatamari.
This looks nothing like what I expected
from the description.
It's thicker than I thought, and like...
(utensils clattering)
I think this is a fork and knife thing,
not wooden utensils.
(metallic tapping)
We're going with metal, everybody.
Okay. It's already fallen apart.
(laughs)
It's okay.
So it looks like we've got the base,
and then ground chicken and some egg.
Yeah. What is not to absolutely love about this?
It's like savory and creamy somehow.
Like the rice flour crepe has a lot of doughiness to it
in a- wait, doughy, I feel like, is a negative thing.
I don't mean it in a negative way.
It's spongy.
That's what I mean.
Like it's not crispy, like I thought-
I was expecting crispy based.
I can see how there's like a little bit of this,
is it pizza, is it not?
The first time I heard about Chatamari,
I saw it in a YouTube video
and it was described as Nepalese pizza.
Now that I'm eating it, I agree.
Like, I don't think I would necessarily call this pizza.
I do feel like it's reminiscent, in a way,
to Japanese okonomiyaki.
It's got that thickness with the egg
and there's like, you know, some veggies in here.
I feel like this would also be really good for sharing.
On its own, like, it's filling for one person.
This is not even that ginormous but for a group setting,
like I just-
there are certain cuisines that are made to be shared,
you know what I mean?
And certain cuisines where you're like,
"My entree is going to be the one chicken breast
with a bit of steamed carrot on the side."
I like the cuisines that are meant to be shared,
where everybody gets a bite of everything,
and it all just goes in the middle of the table.
That's the way I like to eat.
Because I like to try a lot of things
and because I like that feeling of community within food
and that's obviously the kind
of sense that I'm getting from all of this food as well.
This is community food.
This is not, "I'm ordering chatamari for myself."
This is, "We're all gonna have some of it."
This episode has completely inspired me.
I am definitely excited to try much more Nepalese food.
I am leaving everything that I ordered in the description
along with all of the other recommendations.
Thank you so much
to everybody who helped me out on this video.
Thank you to GrubHub.
Don't forget if you use my code BERYL at checkout
it will give you $5 off an order of $15 or more.
Definitely order some Nepalese food
and rock your dinner tonight.
It was fantastic.
If you wanna catch up on some other episodes
from this series, check out our Nigerian episode
or check out the playlist that I have over here
if you wanna see all of them.
I will see you all next week.