Yak Restaurant, Boudha

You know those places that you walk past and completely ignore, that you walk past and think, eek I wouldn't go in there... well, Yak Restaurant is a dingy little place just like that. That you'd probably just walk past without even looking at twice. I did, and have done for months until someone insisted that they did the best Szechuan food in town and took me there for an office lunch....and this was coming from a man from Hong Kong so I trust his judgement. 

It's located on the main streets heading to Boudha Stupa from Shechen Guesthouse, or the Hyatt, just past the bollards and ticket booth that never ever seems to stop anyone for tickets. Small from the outside, it's actually surprisingly big on the inside with a weird cross between gloomy and bright with light only come from the main door and skylights. There is noting presuming or fancy about it. Tables and chairs are all odds and ends, there are several makeshift wooden pillars in the middle of the room holding the roof up, it's like it once-upon-a-time was a shack but has slowly become more and more established and held together. 



















Now for the important bit, the food. I can't claim to know anything about Szechuan food, but what I can say is that everything that we ordered was fantastic. Tofu in oyster sauce, Chicken, beans and peppers - which turned out to be peanut and chilli was delicious. Little spicy pieces of chicken with a nutty background. Then fried green beans and mixed vegetables and nuts. Lots of noodles and rice to go with it. Oh, and bottomless tea...not green tea, and not black tea...something else rather good. 

The menu went on for pages with very to the point descriptions. What else would you want to know - it's Beef with peppers- forget to mention that it's super hot chilly and lots of ginger, or, just fried mushrooms - which turn out to be battered mushrooms which have been deep fried and then put into a gravy with onions and other vegetables!

Since that first visit, I've been back several times and tried a whole array of different choices. It's quick, it's simple - (but only both of these if you don't let yourself get completely confused by the menu and take half an hour just to order!) and best of all it's amazing! 

Time to start again

I've been horribly bad at updating my blog, and realise there has been a lull for about four months! Not good when I am meant to be sharing my crazy and wonderful experiences from this year away.

What I can say right now is that it's been tough. A tough few months, especially since I got back from the UK in August. But rather than dwelling on the hard days...though I might rant about that a bit, I'm going to start doing more of what I'd set out to do in the first place.... talk about the restaurants and cafes around Nepal that I go to, the random events that I get invited to and general day to day experiences and craziness.

And I'll try and start sooner rather than later.

Incredible Faces...pt1

I've had the privileged to take pictures of some amazing local faces while here in Nepal and I wanted to take the opportunity to share some of them. As most of my friends know, I'm pretty inseparable from my camera and I particularly love capturing the faces of people who have amazing stories. Most of the images here are of Tibetans who live in the Tibetan Refugee Settlements scattered around Pokhara, Nepal. The elders have all got a story that either involves having fled Tibet after the Chinese invasion in 1959 or who were part of the Mustang Guerrilla army who continued to fight the Chinese until the late 60s. The young generation who are being brought up in the settlements are now struggling with their identity, and most of struggling with the lack of opportunities for them. Ultimately the younger generation are the future of the community and the seed for Tibet to live on. It's the younger generation that I'm going to be working with closely while I'm out here. 

Different Worlds

Working withing the real developing sector, with NGOs that function on the most basic budgets, and looking out on people who live on the smallest amount every day...and then seeing an add for the new super swish, Microsoft offering to the world which costs what three families could live off for a month...I actually had to remember that this is the same world we are living in. 

Shopping

I went out yesterday to pick up a few bits and pieces of shopping that I needed. I thought I'd share my purchases with you because really the come from a rather wide spectrum of places around Boudha. 

It may not look like a very exciting shop, but really, each item is pretty special and made me happy.  

So, Starting with the Mangoes. Who can resist, especially when it's mango season. These are a more local variety of mango, not the golden Alfonso ones that get shipped off to the west, but a more rustic type who stay fairly green on the outside but have deliciously yellow and sweet flesh. These I bough from a man with a bicycle with a big basket strapped to the back. It's amazing how the mangoes remain so neatly arranged in the basket. I don't think the guy ever rides the bike, it can't possible be balanced properly, but they let him take around a fairly big cargo without straining his back too much. I had already eaten a couple of the mangoes before I decided to take this picture. And these two lovely specimens got turned in to lassi which you can read about here! 

Just above the mangoes is a bag of yogurt (dahi) which is really far more liquid and runny than any yogurt you'd get in the west. I've already promised to get a picture of the little dairy shop where I buy it from. The shop keeper makes the yogurt fresh every day and keeps a big bowl and bucket of it in a chest fridge in the store, pouring out 1/2 liter ladles of it into plastic bags when needed. For some reason people here like the yogurt to be pre-sweetened and it's the far more available variety. Not what I like, especially to go with my rice and dall dinner. You can get the sweetened stuff in tubs which is a bit more convenient and the tubs can be returned so is really far more environmentally friendly. Come to think of it, I could just take a tub down to be filled up! I've been putting the yogurt through a muslin cloth to take the whey out. But this time I think I'll make Mango Lassi out of it. 

Potatoes. still got some dirt on them ...and not all neatly packaged in plastic! Instead they are straight out of a sack from a little shop that sells all sorts of veg, rice, lentils and pretty much everything else you'd need for a basic meal here. Think I'll make some mash this week and try and get some sausages from the Nina and Hager Butchers on the other side of the city. While I am loving the food her, I am getting a bit bored of rice and dall every day, and some times twice! Nina and Hager is a butchers that all the foreigners recommend where they prepare and package the meat using German technology. Really, it allows us foreigners to keep our squeamish side and stay away from the raw chopped up carcasses that the regular butchers have on show here. Maybe I should do a comparison picture at some point. 

Ah, then the Tonic Water!! yayayay, the last four cans in the shop. 2 cold enough to drink so I cracked one open for a G&T as soon as I'd taken the picture, and the rest carefully cooling in the fridge! I picked up a bottle of Tanqueray gin on my way through Delhi duty free and am very happy I did. If anyone is coming to visit me, I'm going to have to insist on doing some duty free shopping for me (I now sound like my parents). 

A tub of Amul Cheese Spread! Does anyone else remember this Plastic Cheese? It's actually perfectly good, particularly in a pasta sauce or even just on toast! Back at Woodstock we used to have this in our waiwai instant noodle some times with the addition of a can of tuna. Really I sometimes look back at those dorm cooked meals and wonder what on earth we were thinking!!

I also got a kilo of baby carrots for a guy who had a little stall on the side of the road who only had carrots. He asked 40npr for a kg, but I got them for 30, even that was probably more than they were worth, but really at 22p for a kg of carrots is seriously a good price! How can I possibly argue about that. At some point I do want to think more carefully about these bargaining rituals that I some times go through. Is it really worth driving the price down when what we are talking about is a matter of Pence in UK terms? But at the same time, should I let salesmen/women get away with charging me a much higher price for something just because I'm clearly a foreigner? I had that dilemma recently when buying peaches and the store keeper asked the Nepali woman next to me for 100npr for a KG and then turned to me and asked for 150npr! The problem is that I understand the language so know when I'm being treated as a foreigner, and that just annoys me! In the case of the peaches, I insisted on 100npr! 

Finally a nice loaf of Muesli brown bread and a Walnut Brownie. These were from a bakery down one of the side roads leading away from the Stupa. There are quite a few of these bakeries around that make pretty decent brown bread and even more fancy pastries. The bread was perfect for breakfast with Mum's home made plum jam, and a change from my usual yogurt and mango. The brownie on the other hand, didn't quite hit the spot. Had a distinct artificial flavor to it, too much sugar and certainly not enough good dark chocolate!! 

Oh, not last, last of all is a 200 gram piece of fresh paneer. From the same yogurt man. I had some spinach pure in the fridge so decided to make Palak Paneer for dinner tonight. I cut the paneer into cubes, lightly fried it, added the spinach pure and some spices, salt and pepper, and had it with my rice and dall! 

So there you have it. My Shopping for the day and some little stories along the way. 

More coming soon.