Kathmandu valley
A Newar feast is eaten sitting in rows on the floor. The Newars are the valley's own people, and in their old cities, Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur, families still cook the same platter for every puja and festival.
Photo: Sajan Rajbahak
Patan · 19:00
Elders take the top of the row and nobody starts before them. On Three Royal Cities a Newar family in Patan's old city seats you after an evening in the royal square; if they cannot cook that night, the feast moves to Honacha in Patan.
Photo: Stan Tuladhar / Unsplash
At the center
The feast opens with baji, beaten rice, then moves through black soybeans, spiced potato, greens, lentil pancakes and pickles, often with buffalo meat, egg and fish. Samay baji, the festival platter, began as farmers' food carried to the fields and eaten cold at midday.
Photo: Mehmet Turgut Kirkgoz / Pexels
The words
Bara is a lentil pancake. Chhwela is spiced buffalo meat. Aila is the rice spirit, poured from a brass jug held high in a long thin stream into a small clay cup. Take the cup in your right hand; one sip is the polite minimum.
Photo: Sushanta Rokka / Unsplash
Closing
Fried bhuttan means the feast is closing, and curd follows. Vegetarian, Jain and alcohol-free versions are possible if you tell us well before the day, and we ask the family for a low stool for anyone who would rather not sit on the floor.
Photo: Tobias Federle / Unsplash
Bhaktapur, 1,401 m (4,600 ft)
Made from buffalo milk and set in unglazed clay kataaro that draw the water out of it, so it stands thick and faintly sweet. The curd shops around Taumadhi and Durbar Square sell it by the pot. It travels badly, which is why you eat it where it is made.
Photo: Kerensa Pickett
Bhaktapur · 07:30
On Three Royal Cities you reach Bhaktapur at 07:30, ahead of the day-trippers, walk from the Golden Gate towards Taumadhi and cut through Talakwo, where the potters' jars dry across the paving, for a clay bowl of juju dhau.
Photo: Mehmet Turgut Kirkgoz / Pexels
24 December 2026
On Yomari Punhi, the full moon of Thinla, Newar kitchens steam yomari: dumplings of new-harvest rice flour shaped like fish and filled with cane sugar and sesame. Samay baji, too, is at its best in festival weeks.
Photo: Ali Hasan Bin Gursain / Unsplash
Planning
Three Royal Cities gives each old city its best hour and ends a Patan evening on the floor mats. It runs from October to April, and the family needs to hear about diets well before the day.
Photo: Polina Kneis / Unsplash