Millet wine and dried meat: «Tea House» del Himalaya
“Amma, arco racksi cha? One, otro racksi, pero muy caliente …”
En Nepal los caminos del Himalaya están llenos de posadas donde los caminantes se detienen a refrescarse y comer algo. En las rutas más concurridas por los “trekeros”, Annapurnas y Everest, estas “tea houses” son amplias y bien acondicionadas, con habitaciones, comedor y una cocina detrás.
Me pone de los nervios las manadas de gente que recorren miles de kilómetros para tomar algo parecido a lo que comen cada día
Aunque son acogedoras y divertidas, no me interesan demasiado estos locales para turistas. It just gets on my nerves the herds of people travel thousands of miles to take something like what they eat every day at home… Banana Crepes, rice fried, spaghetti, sandwiches, pizzas… Food copied, repeated, bad, tasteless…
The good is always the other side of the door, in the kitchen. That place "forbidden" in which tourists do not pass and the Nepalese are always willing to let you. Just a smile and a kind word. Once inside the "sacred" the environment is different. I do not listen to endless conversations about travel "legendary", and one is safe from the banana pancakes and burgers. It's hot, no smoke, Nepali is spoken, and the codes are different.
Small dark Chamizos, refuge "north wind" and cold
Luckily as soon as one deviates a few meters from the usual routes appear authentic Himalayan lodges. Small dark Chamizos, refuge "north wind" and cold, where you eat in the kitchen, sitting on a rough wooden bench running, with owners. The place also serves as shop, with a shelf or a small cabinet with grille and a large metallic padlock. Matches, noodles, khukri rum bottles, cigarettes, incense…
Inside is a "cool", a clay oven that occupies the center of the room, with 2 the 3 openings for fires where they are heated kettles and pans. If the family has prospered may have a portable gas stove. The floor is dirt tread and, except the door, there are only tiny little windows to the outside.
The brightness of the copper plates, ordered aluminum teapots, bright vessels
What surprises me is the exquisite cleanliness and order that reigns within. On the shelves of dazzle shining copper plates, ordered aluminum teapots, bright vessels. Everything is perfect, much more sleek than most kitchens I know (including mine, clear…).
Glued to the walls are wooden benches with straw mats, and very close to the fire bed inn owners. Calendars, images of Shiva and Durga, a small family altar full of incense, rice, vermilion powder, and flower petals.
typical dishes
The atmosphere is dense, smoky, nice and hot. Outside night falls and the wind whips the mountains inclement. It is very cold at the door, but inside it is a wonderful. The smoke does not bother, warmth is appreciated.
Kitchen stoking the fire with a hollow reed for blowing
The owner, Gurung woman, Cooking up the fire with a hollow reed for blowing. Customers do run together in the heat of the fire. Meals are simple, quick to prepare, nutritious. Of course a 'daal bhat "rustic, with a mountain of rice, a bowl of lentils and nicely spicy vegetable curry. For a few rupees you can repeat everything you want. And snacks, sauteed rice noodles, milk chiura, millet porridge, yak cheese, gundruk Soup, soy beans sauteed, momos and fried pakoras.
Nepalese tea is drunk, with lots of sugar and milk, water directly from the jar, lumpy rice beer and sour, and of course hot racksi. The racksi, "Nepali water", is the ubiquitous millet wine of the mountains. Many families prepare at home this soft and transparent liquor, which resembles the sake, and that, like this, Hot taken.
The elongated shreds, and hangs over the fireplace to dry and ahume for months
If no luck in the house there will still be some "Sukuti masu", dried meat goat or water buffalo. After the family Dasain retains some meat, makes elongated strips, and hangs over the fireplace to dry and ahume for months. To cook is rehydrated and fried with onions, tomatoes and a handful of chillies and Szechuan pepper. I can not imagine a better combination to accompany the millet wine.
I love spending time in these places rough and family, where it is so easy to start a conversation, eat, laugh, being in a kitchen and see its secrets and codes. Porters, Sherpas and farmers swirling around the fire, chatting, smoking, sipping hot racksi hands Tuning, with a plate of dried meat tiny goat, spicy and staying hard and blind and infatuated by smoke and fire. The faces redden and racking coughs while Alcohol. From time to time "didi" goes out to wash a dish. It does so with ash, directly on the frozen fountain. We all looked and thought how good it is within. Outside frosting on the slopes of Tukche.
“Amma, arco racksi cha!! My code is racksi, mitto right cha!”
