Editing Nepal (section)

=== Cuisine ===
{{Main|Nepalese cuisine}}
[[File:Nepali dal-bhat-tarkari.jpg|thumb|right|A dal-bhat thali with boiled rice, lentil soup, fried leafy greens, vegetable curry, yoghurt, papad and vegetable salad]]
Nepali cuisine consists of a wide variety of regional and traditional cuisines. With diversity in soil type, climate, culture, ethnic groups, and occupations, these cuisines vary substantially, using locally available spices, herbs, vegetables, and fruit.<ref name=tkpcrop>{{cite web|url=https://kathmandupost.com/opinion/2018/08/12/defining-our-food-culture|title=Defining our food culture|website=Kathmandu Post |language=en|access-date=11 December 2019}}</ref> The [[Columbian exchange]] brought potatoes, tomatoes, maize, peanuts, cashew nuts, pineapples, guavas, and most notably, [[chilli peppers]], to South Asia; all became staples.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.hindu.com/seta/2008/10/16/stories/2008101650731500.htm |work=[[The Hindu]] |title=Potato: historically important vegetable |date=16 October 2008 |author=D Balasubramanian | location=Chennai, India |access-date=26 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120712125030/https://www.hindu.com/seta/2008/10/16/stories/2008101650731500.htm |archive-date=12 July 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Cereal]]s grown in Nepal, their times and regions of planting, correspond strongly to the timing of monsoons<ref name=sen-colleen-p13>{{cite book |last=Sen|first=Colleen Taylor|title=Feasts and Fasts: A History of Food in India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VN_vCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA164|year=2014|publisher=[[Reaktion Books]]|isbn=978-1-78023-391-8|pages=164–165}}</ref> and variations in altitude. Rice and wheat are mostly cultivated in the terai plains and well-irrigated valleys; maize, millet, barley and buckwheat mostly in the less fertile and drier hills.<ref name=tkpcrop/><ref name=pathak>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BiOiK89C5jcC|title=Taste of Nepal|last=Pathak|first=Jyoti|date=2007|publisher=Hippocrene Books|isbn=978-0-7818-1121-7|language=en}}</ref>

A typical Nepali meal is a cereal cooked in plain fashion, complemented with flavourful, savoury dishes.<ref name="Davidson2014-p409">{{cite book |last=Davidson|first=Alan|title=The Oxford Companion to Food|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RL6LAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA409|year=2014|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=978-0-19-967733-7|page=409}}</ref> The latter include [[lentil]]s, [[pulses]] and vegetables, spiced commonly with [[ginger root|ginger]] and [[garlic]], and more discerningly with combinations of [[coriander]], [[cumin]], [[turmeric]], [[cinnamon]], [[cardamon]], [[jimbu]] and others.<ref name="Davidson2014-p409"/> This is typically on a platter, or [[thali]], with a central place for the cooked cereal and small bowls for the flavourful accompaniments. They are combined either by actual mixing—for example, rice and lentils—or in the folding of one—such as bread—around the other, such as cooked vegetables.<ref name="Davidson2014-p409"/> ''Dal-bhat'' centred around steamed rice is the most common example.<ref name=cnnfood/> as well as dairy and sometimes meat. Unleavened flat bread made from wheat flour called [[chapati]] occasionally replaces rice, particularly in the Terai, while [[Dhindo]], prepared by boiling corn, millet or buckwheat flour in water, continuously stirring and adding flour until thick, almost solid consistency is reached, is the main substitute in the hills and mountains. Tsampa, flour made from roasted barley or naked barley, is the main staple in the high himalayas. Throughout Nepal, fermented, then sun-dried, leafy greens called ''Gundruk'', are both a delicacy and a vital substitute for fresh vegetables in the winter.<ref name=pathak/>

[[File:Plateful of Momo in Nepal.jpg|thumb|Momo dumplings with chutney]]
A notable feature of Nepali food is the existence of a number of distinctive vegetarian cuisines, each a feature of the geographical and cultural histories of its adherents.<ref name="Davidson2014-p410">{{cite book |last=Davidson|first=Alan|title=The Oxford Companion to Food|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RL6LAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA410|year=2014|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=978-0-19-967733-7|page=410}}</ref> The appearance of ''[[ahimsa]]'', or the avoidance of violence toward all forms of life in many religious orders early in South Asian history, especially [[Upanishads|Upanishadic Hinduism]], [[Buddhism]] and [[Jainism]], is thought to have been a notable factor in the prevalence of vegetarianism among a segment of Nepal's Hindu and Buddhist populations, as well as among Jains.<ref name="Davidson2014-p410"/> Among these groups, strong discomfort is felt at thoughts of eating meat.<ref name="SahakianSaloma2016-50">{{cite book |last1=Sahakian|first1=Marlyne|last2=Saloma|first2=Czarina|last3=Erkman|first3=Suren|title=Food Consumption in the City: Practices and patterns in urban Asia and the Pacific|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TBIxDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT50|year=2016|publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]]|isbn=978-1-317-31050-1|page=50}}</ref> Though per capita meat consumption is low in Nepal, the proportion of vegetarianism is not high as in India, due to the prevalence of [[Shaktism]], of which animal sacrifice is a prominent feature.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Majupuria|first=Indra|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tPAsvQEACAAJ|title=Joys of Nepalese Cooking: A Most Comprehensive and Practical Book on Nepalese Cookery : 371 Easy-to-make, Kitchen-tested Recipes|date=1990|publisher=S. Devi|language=en}}</ref>

[[File:Samaybaji.JPG|thumb|right|Samayabaji (Newar cuisine)]]
Nepali cuisines possess their own distinctive qualities to distinguish these hybrid cuisines from both their northern and southern neighbours.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/could-nepali-cuisine-go-global/|title=Could Nepali cuisine go global?|last=Heaton|first=Thomas|date=3 August 2018 |language=en-US|access-date=11 December 2019}}</ref><ref name=cnnfood>{{cite news|url=https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/nepal-top-foods/index.html|title=Momos to Thali: What to eat in Kathmandu|last=marsh|first=jenni|date=16 December 2016|work=CNN Travel|language=en|access-date=11 December 2019}}</ref> Nepali cuisines, with generally tomato-based, leaner curries, are lighter than their cream-based Indian counterparts, and Nepali momo dumplings are heavily spiced compared to their northern counterparts.<ref name=cnnfood/> Newar cuisine, one of the richest and most influential in Nepal, is more elaborate and diverse than most, as Newar culture developed in the highly fertile and prosperous Kathmandu valley.<ref name=tkpcrop/> A typical Newar cuisine can comprise more than a dozen dishes of cereals, meat, vegetable curries, chutneys and pickles. [[Kwati (soup)|Kwanti]] (sprouted beans soup), chhwela (ground beef), [[Chatānmari|chatamari]] (rice flour crepe), bara (fried lentil cake), kachila (marinated raw minced beef), samaybaji (centred around flattened rice), {{transliteration|ne|lakhaamari}} and {{transliteration|ne|yomuri}} are among the more widely recognised.<ref name=cnnfood/><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1Oq8AgAAQBAJ|title=Curry Cookbook – Nepal Cuisine|last=Rai|first=Jay|publisher=Springwood emedia|isbn=978-1-4760-4069-1|language=en}}</ref> Juju dhau, a sweet yoghurt originating in Bhaktapur, is also famous.<ref name=cnnfood/> Thakali cuisine is another well-known food tradition which seamlessly melds the Tibetan and the Indian with variety in ingredients, especially the herbs and spices.<ref name=tkpcrop/> In the Terai, [[Bagiya]] is a rice flour dumpling with sweets inside, popular among the Tharu and Maithil people. Various communities in the Terai make {{transliteration|ne|sidhara}} (sun-dried small fish mixed with [[taro]] leaves) and biriya (lentil paste mixed with taro leaves) to stock for the monsoon floods.<ref name=tkpcrop/> {{transliteration|ne|Selroti}}, {{transliteration|ne|kasaar}}, {{transliteration|ne|fini}} and {{transliteration|ne|chaku}} are among the sweet delicacies. Rice pulau or sweet rice porridge called {{transliteration|ne|kheer}} are usually the main dish in feasts.<ref name=pathak/> Tea and buttermilk (fermented milk leftover from churning butter from yoghurt) are common non-alcoholic drinks. Almost all janajati communities have their own traditional methods of brewing alcohol. [[Raksi]] (traditional distilled alcohol), jaand (rice beer), tongba (millet beer) and chyaang are the most well-known.