Brisbane's Culinary Diversity: 52 cuisines in 52 weeks: Week 23: Nepal

Week 23: Nepal...snow capped mountains, yaks and yetis.

Nepal is a small landlocked Hindu Kingdom, wedged between the high wall of the Himalayan Ranges and the dense jungles of the Indian plains. Since it opened its door to international tourists in the late 1950's, Nepal has become a trendy travel destination for intrepid Australian trekkers. It has some of the best hiking trails in the world, and eight of the highest mountains, including Mt Everest. "The Great Himalaya Trail" is Nepal's latest tourism product, and spans the country with 1,700km of trails. It is an alluring destination, not only for the adventure seeker, but also for those who wish to embark on a profound spiritual journey to the birthplace of Buddha. Lord Siddhartha Gautama Buddha was born over 2500 years ago (563BC to be exact) under a Bodhi tree in Lumbini . We, however, are on a culinary journey, which led us to a Nepalese restaurant named after this heritage listed place of religious significance, right in the middle of bustling West End, 1,9 km from the heart of Brisbane city. West End was so named by early British settlers who found the area reminiscent of the West End of London. We shall return to West End many times in the next couple of months, as it is a melting pot of culinary diversity, with multiple ethnic restaurants straddling the streets of this vibrant suburb.

Lumbini Nepalese Restaurant prides itself in serving authentic Nepali food. It is often said that you go to Nepal for the mountains, but you return for the people. If the friendliness and gentle manner of the staff at Lumbini is the bellwether for the nature of Nepal's people, then that is definitely true. There are just over 400 Nepalese living in Brisbane (17,000 in Australia), and at one stage, it felt as though all of them were hovering outside Lumbini. We were the only non-Nepalese diners, and when people started to get up and make speeches in Nepali, we knew we were caught up in more than just a regular Friday Night Out. Our waitress, a charming Nepalese student, explained that we were actually surrounded by celebrities: Stars from Nepal, performing at the Tivoli Theatre the following night, enjoying a welcoming function hosted by dignitaries of the Nepalese Association of Queensland.

Oblivious to the importance of our fellow diners, the eight of us started with a selection of entrees. Masti Garna! They were absolutely delicious: Momo ( the unofficial national dish of Nepal - steamed pork dumplings with a spicy dipping sauce); Apple Chat ( stuffed vegetable puff with apple chutney served with raita and fried lentils); Poleko Khukuru (spicy grilled chicken served with yoghurt) and my favourite, Aloo Chop (Himalayan spiced crunchy potato cakes served with tomato chutney). We placed the mains all in the centre of our long table and tasted a bit of everything: Traditional Goat Curry; Lumbini Chicken Curry; Aloo tama Bodi ( slow cooked potatoes and beans with herbs and bamboo shoots); Beef Masala; Butheko Ginger (mixed mushrooms and vegetables) and Masu Bhat (a combination platter of beef curry, daal vegetables and roti). Phil ordered the Himalayan Briyani, which must have been served to one of the celebrities, as it never arrived at our table......not that we had a shortage of food to share! Taking a conservative approach, we ordered most of the curries as medium, however the heat of some of the dishes could have been amped up a little bit more. Being a neighbour to India, it comes as no surprise that most of the local cuisine is a variation on Indian themes. Malai Nepali khanna man parcha (I like Nepalese food).

Fact Time! The sharing of facts is starting to overshadow the importance of the food, and evolve into an amazing compendium of highly useful, extremely fascinating and completely irrelevant information on the chosen destination. Last night alluded to the prospect that we might have a "spot-the-fake-fact" trend developing. One of the most interesting facts was that 90 % of the Nepalese population is Hindu. I wrongly assumed that most of them would be Buddhist. That also explains why the national animal is the cow, a fact Boetie shared with us, together with an analysis of the very unusually shaped flag. Keith pointed out that the bio-diversity of Nepal is second only to the Amazon forest, Martina's fact pertained to the geography of the mountains and Phil informed us that there are four different types of sign language in Nepal (at first I thought this might be a "spot-the-fake-fact" candidate, but apparently it is true). The Grevilles joined us last night, and did not disappoint in their fact contributions. Andrew had a long fact (expanding on the history of the Gurkha Soldiers); Finn had a short fact (the shortest man in the world at 57cm is from Nepal), and Louise had a topical fact (the production of textiles from wild nettles, de rigueur amongst the foremost Italian fashion houses).

Next week we'll try our luck in Ireland.