Nepali Newari Food – Introduction to the Stimulating Flavors of Samay Baji

By Mark Wiens 18 Comments
Newari Food in Nepal
Newari Food in Nepal

Before arriving to Nepal, I had never heard of Newari food (and as you can guess, I also had NO idea what it was).

If you have never visited Nepal or known someone from Nepal, you likely haven’t heard of it either…

I’m here to tell you that Newari food is incredible, it is in my opinion a cuisine worthy of being served at restaurants throughout the world.

From the few meals I was able to eat in Nepal, I fell in love with Newari cuisine!

Newari food, and a plate of chicken momos as well
Newari food, and a plate of chicken momos as well

What is Newari Food?

Newari food is under the larger umbrella of Nepali food, but it’s from the specific Kathmandu Valley region. The indigenous Newa people, also known as Newars, are the group of people that have fine tuned this world class cuisine into some truly magical flavors.

The Newari people, just like so many other cultures throughout Asia, take food extremely seriously. That’s why I love living and traveling in Asia so much – food is such a huge part of the culture.

According to an article by We All Nepal, there are three different categories of Newari food: daily meals, snacks, and feasts. I love that, no more breakfast, lunch, or dinner, but simply meals, snacks, and feasts!

Within the Kathmandu Valley, local Newars have frequent traditional celebrations and festivals where food plays a major role. Lots of people gather together to celebrate and to partake of Newari food together.

Newari cuisine consists of many different dishes, many of which are cooked with a generous amount of spices like cumin, turmeric, pepper, cinnamon, ginger, garlic, chilies, and mustard oil and seeds.

Vegetables like potatoes, chickpeas, eggplant, cauliflower, lentils, bitter melon, and mustard greens are common. For meat, buffalo is most common and most beloved, but chicken, goat, and dried fish, are also common. The Newari staple is beaten rice, known as baji or chiura.

Newari food (video) is intensely flavored with a delicious array of spices and my taste buds rejoiced with every bite.

Newari Food - Samay Baji
Newari Food – Samay Baji

Samay Baji – Newari Meal

During my initial stay in Kathmandu, I was staying at a hotel in the Thamel backpacker district. Similar to Bangkok’s Khao San Road, the area is not my favorite, packed with tourists and services they require. I prefer to be far removed from the hostel districts of cities and focus more on local areas, and food.

But even within touristy areas there are occasional gems to be found, one of them being Shree Trishakti Newari Restaurant, located at the back of a seemingly half constructed little Jyatha Complex shopping mall, right off Amrit Marg (parallel to Thamel).

Having just arrived in Nepal, I ordered whatever the friendly lady vendor wanted to serve me, and after researching what I ate later online, I discovered it was a plate of samay baji.

Everything looked and smelled incredible, and the dishes were all prepared and displayed just like Malaysian nasi campur or Thai khao gaeng.

She prepared my plate by first adding a few handfuls of the baji (flattened beaten rice). Then from the series of prepared dishes she added a mixtures of items. Curried potatoes and other spicy vegetables, fried soybeans (bhatmas), and the highlight of my plate, a scoop of curried buffalo meat.

The beaten rice was crunchy like uncooked whole grain oats, but it was slightly crispier. At first I was a little puzzled that I was being served raw crunchy rice, but due to its thinness, it surprisingly broke down effortlessly with a few chews.

Mixing bites of baji with the variety of curries and an occasional piece of meaty buffalo was a truly memorable meal. Samay baji is loaded with exciting flavors and a unique set of dishes.

Shree Trishakti Newari Restaurant in Kathmandu, Nepal
Shree Trishakti Newari Restaurant in Kathmandu, Nepal

There are many places to eat Newari food in Kathmandu, but the first place I went, conveniently located near Thamel street, is Shree Trishakti Newari Restaurant. It’s quite a local restaurant, and you’ll find delicious food there!

The restaurant is right below Man Tang Hong Hot Pot, an excellent Chinese restaurant where I also ate numerous meals in Kathmandu.


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    1 year ago

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  • The SEO Buck

    3 years ago

    Nice food blog!

  • High Rated Gabru

    3 years ago

    Cool blog post. Thanks for share.

  • Vishal

    4 years ago

    Great content.

  • Prasanna Poudel

    7 years ago

    MARK i am probably your biggest fan . you should visit nepal once again . nepali food is very diverse you should vist pokhara and chitwan for many other famous cities.

  • Apurba Sitoula

    7 years ago

    Hey Mark!! You should definitely visit Nepal one more time. I’m heading to Nepal on September of 2017 and I’d love to go around places and enjoy street food with you. You’ll also get a chance to experience our main festival “Dashain” which falls right on September (delicious food you’ll get to enjoy during this time).

  • JF

    9 years ago

    I find it disappointing that people describe the food items in the plates but do not describe the flavors. It’s hard to figure out how foods taste by saying that someone liked the food. Flavors can be described a mildly hot, very hot, bland or soft, sour, crunchy, sweet, almost sweet, chewy, pungeant or intense (in the case of curry), etc. Such descriptions will be more meaningful to readers.

    • Mark Wiens

      9 years ago

      Hi JF, thank you very much for your feedback. I will work and continue to improve my descriptions of food.

  • vikas

    10 years ago

    Hey! Mark thank u for visit in Nepal. these dishes i never try but yes these are so delicious i want the recipes to cook these food if u have Please share with me.

    Hi kajal same for u friend i never try but yes i ate only sale roti and dehrod.

    can u post the pic of chatambari & sekuwa

    • Mark Wiens

      10 years ago

      Hey Vikas, great to hear from you. Unfortunately I have no recipes for these dishes, but I just ate them at a restaurant in Nepal. Are you from Nepal?

  • kajal beriwal

    10 years ago

    Hello Mark, nice to see Nepali food in your collection . The food you posted are very few . We have many more tasty & traditional dishes in our country, try them too. I am sure you will love to eat sel roti, yamari, sekuwa, chatambari, and many more dishes of our country. Thankyou !

    • Mark Wiens

      10 years ago

      Hey Kajal, thank you for sharing, I would love to come back to Nepal and try all the foods you mentioned!

  • Stephen

    10 years ago

    Found it for lunch today in Thamel!! Nice pick, Mark. Thanks!

    • Mark Wiens

      10 years ago

      Hey Stephen, glad you found this place, and the motherly lady is really friendly too! Did you try the Chinese restaurant on top of it? Amazing too!

  • http://tasteofnepal.blogspot.com/

    11 years ago

    I just wanted to say that I have been reading all the entries on your web page since yesterday – non-stop. What a awesome job you have done, your pictures are the best and all the information on different cuisine and culture is so formative. May I have your permission to share your link on my blog – http://tasteofnepal.blogspot.com/

  • Maria

    11 years ago

    Newari food looks like a definite must have – I think it’s up to you to bring it back and spread it beyond this post. Pour on the charm and get those recipes details!