Dinner and a Puppy

Today, for the first time, we were actually invited to eat dinner in the home of one of our Nepali friends.  The food was delicious!  And endless!!!

Just what they brought out as appetizers would have been enough for a wonderful meal.  A typical vegetable tray, with carrot sticks and celery, but also including strips of radish–and while before coming here I would have said that I don’t like radishes, Nepali radishes are really very good.  And there were two different kinds of amazingly spiced bits of chicken, and an absolutely fabulous appetizer called chaat–on the plate, it looks like a breaded potato, and on one level that’s what it is.  But it’s better.  It’s actually mashed potatoes seasoned with herbs and a dash of chili pepper, rolled into small balls, then covered with breading and fried.  Yum!

And all that was before the main meal.  Delicious chicken soup, seasoned tofu that even my husband liked (and he usually swears he doesn’t like tofu), another kind of herb chicken with an amazing sauce, mushrooms in yet another remarkable sauce, and the obligatory component of every Nepali meal:  daal bhat.  That is, cooked lentils and rice.

Actually, most Nepalis eat daal bhat for most meals.  They like the routine, just like I once went through a phase of living on chicken nuggets and my sister went through a phase of subsisting on cheese.  The food is so common that the phrase itself means a meal.

But for a Nepali feast, there are limitless other dishes to prepare.  My husband and I have yet to try one of the most famous restaurants in Kathmandu, where for a set dinner they bring out over thirty courses.  A great way to sample a variety of Nepali foods, yes, but also a good way to get a tummy ache!  Even after just today, I’m stuffed.  But it was really good.

And while we were gone to dinner, the puppy was really good, too.  In about five hours, she only made a single mess in the house.  She’s already quite good at understanding that as soon as she hits the grass outside, she’s supposed to do her business.  Since she’s so little, I’m amazed she waited so patiently to go out, but she did.  And then, after she came back in and we played with her for a while, I left her with Sean and went back up to the third floor to retrieve her food dish, which had been in the laundry room where she’d stayed while we were gone.  And after I finished cleaning up her one mess, and turned around… there she was, dancing around my heels in the goofy puppy way she has, her eyes even more shining than normal, as if to point out, “Lookie what I did mommy!”

I’d never before seen her make it up the single set of stairs to the second floor.  And yet there she was on the third floor, having mastered the separate stairs up to that floor, too, and all in the couple of minutes I’d been up there.

She had to descend the stairs more carefully, with me just a couple of steps in front of her, ready to catch her if she slipped — she slid multiple times on the shorter series of steps outside when she was learning to navigate them.  But she was indeed very careful, stretching down her front paws and shifting her balance some, then bringing down her back paws and resting a moment, tail wagging, before daring the next stair.  And she made it all the way.  Quite a feat, considering each step is taller than she is!

Of course, she’ll be harder to confine to a single floor at a time, now that she knows how to get up and down the stairs, but she’s growing up!

Sorry, no pictures today.  It’s almost 1 am, and I’m tired.

Sean just carried the puppy in here to say goodnight, and when he held her out to me, she licked me on the nose.  I think she might like me…

Nepali of the Day:

Khanaa khanubhayo?:  Have you eaten?… literally, but it’s also just a really common greeting, like “How are you?”

Khaaee:  I’ve eaten… again, literally, but as a response to the greeting it’s like, “I’m fine.”

khanaa: food

daal baat:  generic phrase for any meal

bhaat:  cooked rice

chamaal:  uncooked rice (you would never eat this!)

daal:  lentils, or any of a remarkable variety of sauces with a lentil base

khukurako maasu:  chicken meat

ko:  ‘s (element that makes a word possessive)

khukura:  chicken

khukur:  dog (don’t confuse with the above!  Nepalis don’t eat khukurko maasu either!)