Malekhu (Dhading), 29 January: Newari cuisine has become a well-known attraction at the Dhading Folk Cultural Festival. Dishes of various flavors including Samaybaji, Newari lunch set, Choila, Bhutan, Yomari, Sapumicha, Bara, etc. have attracted the attention of everyone who has visited the festival.
Near the festival stage, the Newari food stall run by the Jhingu Newa Samaj Dhading is crowded with people trying Newari flavors and enjoying ‘basa’. Harikumar Shrestha, who was working at the stall and tasting the food, said, “Everyone who comes here asks if they should try Newari food. The business is much better than expected.” He said that although there are stalls serving other food dishes at the festival, customers who want to try the original taste come to the Newari food stall.
Rajkumar Shrestha, the president of the Jhingu Newar Samaj, Dhading, who has tasted the dish once and returned with his family, informed that Newari dishes are a favorite of those who come to observe them because they have a different taste from other foods and snacks.
“Newari dishes are not easily available in the markets of Dhading, and even if they are available, they are only in name,” said Kanchho Narayan Shrestha, who came to observe the festival from Galchhi Rural Municipality-8. “When I came here, I was able to taste organic Newari dishes.”
Trader Shrestha said that although there was not much activity in the initial days, it has been bustling since the second and third days. He said, “Customers who come here like Yamari the most compared to other dishes.” He said that Yomari, which looks like mam and is prepared by boiling it in a mam cooking pot, takes a lot of time to make.
Although the Newar community has been making and eating Yomari on the day of Yomari Punhi for hundreds of years, the attraction of other communities towards this dish has gradually increased after the practice of making and selling Yomari in the market emerged. According to Chairman Shrestha, the daily turnover is between Rs 70,000 and 80,000.
Newari food stall
The society’s president, Shrestha, said that a stall has been set up at the festival to promote Newari food and some of the income from this will be deposited in the society’s treasury. Although Newari food is not a new dish for the residents of the district headquarters, it has become a new snack for those who come from the villages of the district.
“Its popularity has been increasing recently. Some time ago, the Social Development Office Gajuri under the Ministry of Social Development provided training in making Newari dishes, which further increased the popularity of Newari cuisine in the district headquarters, Dhadingbesi,” he said.
On November 11 and 12, the Jhigu Newa Society organized the first Dhadingbesi Street Newa Food Festival in Dhadingbesi, giving the residents of the district headquarters a taste of Newari cuisine.
