Porters having Dhal Bhat, Laprak - Contact Information - Copyright: Jerome Lorieau
Above is the kitchen where I used to have my breakfast, lunch and dinner during my two weeks stay in Laprak, Nepal. This was also the house of my welcome family.
The house was made of three rooms: 1 bedroom, 1 kitchen and 1 room where potatoes, bean, corn, millet and rice were stock. The kitchen was the main room where guests were welcomed and where family gathered at night for dinner. At dusk, some of the neighborhood, friend of my family, regularly came to share some of their meal and enjoy a chat while having a soup, Nepalese wine, tea or just tatopani (hot water). During my two weeks my diet was made of fried rice/fried potatoes/fried pasta mixed with green vegetables, boiled/fried eggs, dhal bat (lentils soup, bean, potatoes, rice, vegetable, spice), momo, nuggets made of corn wheat and chapati*. I had some meat sometimes but it was quite rare. Usually meat is shared between unhabitants when an animal, like pork or buffalo is killed. They are usually slaughtered on a special event like holy festival. Chicken are everywhere in the village but not everyday in your plate. They do the job of laying eggs everyday. Most of the Nepalese people eat only Dhal Bhat twice a day all year long. Dhal Bhat in remote places of Nepal are really not like those you can have in the touristic area of Thamel in Kathmandu. They are usually poorer and rely on the quality of the vegetables growing in the land surrounding villages* and how wealthy is a family in order to buy and cooked extra ingredients in it.
Sometimes porters looking for a place to sleep, used to have dinner in the house before staying for the night. Most of them belonged to trekking groups on their way to Larkia Pass (5200m) on the Around the Manaslu trek.
*In general, corn, millet, rice, condiments, potatoes, green vegetables and beans make up most of the Gurung cultivations, allowing inhabitants of villages to live from their own products.
Kancchi having soup, Laprak - Contact Information - Copyright: Jerome Lorieau
As the sun is going down, Kancchi is having soup in her daughter's house before going to her house in the lower part of the village
Boys having breakfast, Laprak - Contact Information - Copyright: Jerome Lorieau
Boys having a dhal bhat in the early morning before going to school, Laprak, Gorkha district
