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Located at Lainchaur (right opposite the British Embassy), Curilo is one restaurant that was repeatedly recommended to APEX food sleuths. Owners and managers of popular restaurants sang its praise and suggested we try it because the food there is—unique, organic and hygienic. Curilo’s self-explaining menu offers breakfast, lunch, dinners and in-between snacks, all created carefully by its 5-star experienced chef. Focusing more on quality than quantity, the dishes Curilo’s kitchen belt out are freshly made, with a touch of organic and exotic garnish. Curilo makes its own pastas, bagels, buns and multi-grain breads and also serves an exclusive array of desserts.

Probably the only place in Kathmandu where one can try the “Involtini of mango chicken and pancetta, sage butter, soft polenta,” Curilo is popular among local foodies and expats alike. As one of its regular patrons told us at the restaurant, this is a place where many celebrities and socialites “meet, eat and date.”

 THE MENU

Chef’s Special:

- Quinoa and Goat Cheese Salad

- Lamb ravioli, oyster mushroom cream, truffle essence

- Crème Brulee

Opening hours:

- 8:30 am to 10 pm

Location:

   - Lainchaur, Ktm

Cards:

- Accepted

Meal for 2:

- Rs 2,000

Reservations:

    - 014005079

E-Arts Nepal is organizing its second Himalayan Art Festival at Nepal Art Council, Babar Mahal, on the eve of Dashain and Tihar. This festival that kicked off on September 11 ends September 15. Showcasing their works will be amazing artists who have been acclaimed at home and abroad.

The focus is on artworks of Nepali living masters and tra­ditional/contemporary artists with their paubha arts, paint­ings, sculptures, prints, installa­tions, photographs and ceram­ics. What’s more, this festival also features marvelous theater and musical performances. For children, there are art talk and creative activities. On the last day of the festival, i.e. Saturday, there will be creative activities for children (10-11 am), followed by exclusive performance by actors from Actor’s Studio (3 pm).

You can go see the exhibit any time between 11 am-7 pm. Be sure to look at the schedule by E-arts Nepal for program itiner­ary for the day. If you are an art lover, you should definitely be a part of it.

It wouldn’t be a spoiler to say ‘Lullaby’ by Leila Slimani, a French-Moroccan journalist and novelist, is basically a murder story. The book cover gives that away and you will also find out on the very first page that the nanny kills the children. But what you will really be waiting for is the motive behind the murders and Slimani slowly builds the tension in the story while giving you a clue here and there. It all makes for a riveting read, one that will leave you with a chill in your bones.

The set-up is simple and straight­forward: Paul, a music producer, and Myriam, a lawyer, with two young children, look for a nanny so that Myriam can take up a job that her friend has offered her at his law firm. This is how Louise enters their life. With her prim Peter Pan collar, meticulously painted nails, an age­less face, and an apparent way with children, she is just the nanny they had in mind.

Actually, she is even better than what they had in mind. Louise is not only great with their two kids but keeps the house clean and even cooks dinner. It’s like Mary Poppins has come into their lives and solved all their problems. Lou­ise, thus, becomes indispensible for the family, so much so that Paul and Myriam even take her along during a family vacation.

But things quickly unravel and how! Louise’s façade starts crum­bling as she tells the children cruel tales, takes a simple game of hide-and-seek so seriously that the chil­dren get scared, and starts making herself at home at her employer’s house, sometimes even insisting she sleep over in the children’s bed­room. Paul and Myriam start feel­ing unsettled by her ways and, as a reader, you get spooked too. But the slow unspooling of Louise’s own family life—there’s a daughter who deserts her—makes you sympathize with her despite the horrifying act you know she is guilty of.

Lullaby will feel familiar and you will get a sense of déjà vu because the issues it deals with—class, race, gender and above all parenting—are ones we see, hear of, deal with, and read about ever so often. But what works for Lullaby is how bril­liantly Slimani has crafted the story. If at one point you are seeing things entirely from Louise’s perspectives, the very next page will have you firmly on the parents’ side.

Also, a translated work can be a so-so experience but Sam Taylor’s translation is so graceful and con­trolled that it gives nothing away of all the deranged unraveling to come even a second before it’s due. You will read Lullaby with a mounting sense of dread and, at just a little over 200 pages long, you will wish it were longer.

Jerk Chicken, Jerk Pork, Caribbean Pepper Pot Soup, Cabbage and Salt Fish, Jamai­can Juicy Patties, Potato and Mango Pick-a-Peppa are some of the exotic Jamaican dishes being served at the Sunrise Restaurant in Hotel Yak & Yeti, Durbarmarg from September 5 to 15.

The hotel is hosting the Jamaican food promotions “to take the guests on a gas­tronomical journey to experi­ence the diverse flavors of the tropical Caribbean Island.”

The Piano Bar alongside is also serving all-day special snacks and cocktail menu for the period. Some of the exciting snacks on the menu are Calamari and Shrimp Fritters with Tartar Sauce, Jerk Buffalo Chicken Wings with Blue Cheese Dip, Mini Burgers with Crispy Fried Onion, along with drinks and cocktails such as Mojito Royal, Bacardi Rum Carrot Colada, Jamaican Fever, CaribbeanLicious and many more

 Your Pokhara trip will be incomplete without at least one Thakali meal. Trust us on this. Our APEX food sleuths have found just the place to fill your soul with the best of the Nepali rice platter. Jetho Budho at Lakeside, Pokhara (first floor of the famous Oxygen Lounge building) is one of the newest eateries in the lake-city which is getting popular for its mouth-watering rice offerings.

Named after a rice called ‘jetho budho’ (the ‘king of rice’ that is locally grown in the Fewa Taal region of Pokhara), Jetho Budho is an upscale ver­sion of the many set-meal restaurants in the area. With a typical Thakali ambience created by its wooden floors and ceilings, Nepali handicrafts and paintings as well as traditional Nepali crockery, the food at Jetho Budho is gorgeously served and a treat to any connoisseur of rice, which, we guess, applies to most Nepalis.

 THE MENU

Chef’s Special:

- Chicken Khana Set

- Mutton Khana Set

- Fish Khana Set

Opening hours: 10 am-10 pm

Location: Lakeside, Pokhara

Cards:  Accepted

Meal for 2: Rs 1,000

Reservations: 9806717273

 Watching this one-and-a-half-hour play about love, drugs and lust in the dimly-lit Kunja Theatre in Thapagaun will make you repeatedly question your fast-paced life. You may also start rethinking your early adulthood.The four actors in ‘Basu-dev’ are nearly flawless. They show you the dark underbelly of Kathmandu, where young adults feel lost in their life, distant from their families, and unaware of the consequences of their actions. They make wrong decisions all the time while follow­ing their “cool” friends.

Although advertised as “kid-friendly” on social media, it is packed with lip-locks, sexual innu­endos, sexually intimate moments and a lot of swearing. All this does not come across as weird and awk­ward as the story calls for it. The actors being cool about it all makes the play even more interesting.

The background music and light complement the set well. Though there is some awkward dancing, and towards the end, you might be look­ing at your watch, this play is still a very good package. There is tension, comedy, love and drama.

Sijal Bajracharya, 23, who had never seen a theatrical play before, says, “I really enjoyed it. It made me realize that the youth of Nepal are very talented and have a lot of potential. I had not expected much to be honest, so this play exceeded my expectations.”

Produced by Four Cube Enter­tainment Pvt. Ltd., Basu-dev is directed by Sandeep Shrestha and Nabin Bhatt. The play is at 5:30 pm every day, till September 16 (except on Wednesdays). On Saturday, there is a matinee show at 1:30 pm.

Photos by Pritam Chhetri

 SADAN ‘the five petals’ group art exhibition at the Classic Art Gallery, Imukhel offers a vibrant art experience, featuring the work of five young female artists: Sabita Dangol, Anamika Gautam, Deepma­la Maharjan, Anisha Maharjan and Namrata Singh. Madan Chitrakar, an artist and art critic, says the paintings are unique because all the artists are young and come from diverse cultural backgrounds.

“The art gallery has always aimed to empower women artists and this is an event that highlights our will­ingness to do so,” says Sarita Dan­gol, the organizer of the exhibition. According to Dangol, some paintings are available for sale as well.

The exhibition provides a fresh and diverse art experience as well as an opportunity to explore some paintings that may adorn your walls.

You can visit any day of the week between 10:00 am to 6:00 pm. The exhibit ends on September 25.

The two Eminent Persons Groups (EPGs) set up to review past India-Nepal treaties had come up with a final draft of their joint report on July 4. After this, the report was to be presented first to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then to his Nepali counterpart KP Sharma Oli. But Modi is apparently too busy and he has thus far not given the joint EPG team the time to meet.

When Nepal had raised the prospect of submitting the report during the Indian prime minister’s recent visit to Kathmandu for the BIMSTEC summit, India had reportedly declined as it would not discuss ‘bilateral issues at the side­lines of the multilateral forum’. But then India and Nepal did discuss a host of bilateral issues at the sidelines, including cross-border railways. But, according to Bhekh Bahadur Thapa, the coordinator of the Nepali EPG, there is an alter­native explanation behind Modi’s reluctance.

“When we talk of revis­ing past Indo-Nepal trea­ties we are talking about extremely sensitive issues,” he told APEX. “Since the joint report will be made public immediately after it is presented to the respective prime ministers, perhaps the political leaderships in the two countries are taking their time to closely study the recommendations away from the prying eyes.”

He also cautions against “wild speculations on such a deli­cate issue”. His remark comes in the wake of some comments in the media that the EPG process has been a failure as India is supposedly not interested in heeding its recommenda­tions. Along with revisions in the 1950 Treaty of Peace and Friendship, for instance in the clause providing for ‘recip­rocal treatment’ of citizens of one country in the other, the EPG report also recommends a level of border management. Some analysts suspect India is not ready for these changes.

Thapa says both the Indian and Nepali political leaderships have invested a lot in the EPG process and it would be pre­mature to suggest that the process has been a failure. Also, he clarifies, the EPG members decided against submitting the report at the sidelines of BIMSTEC summit as that would have “undermined the importance of the EPG process.”

Whatever the EPG members may say, the longer the submission of the report is delayed the stronger will be the perception that the whole process has somehow been futile as India is simply not interested.