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We are always looking for something a little different. Whether it’s in our choice of clothes, art or furniture. Food is no different. We like variety and like to see the creative on the plate. As eating out becomes more a way of life in Kathmandu many diners are looking towards food that appeals to them; not too unfamiliar and yet diverse enough to make them part with their money.

With its blend of flavors and cultures, Pan-Asian cuisine can do just that! A Pan-Asian menu consists of dishes from different countries from the whole of Asia. Whether it’s from China, Thailand, Indonesia, or Japan, if it appears on one menu, chances are you are in a Pan-Asian restaurant. In Kathmandu there are a few Pan-Asian restaurants opening up as people venture overseas on holiday and want to recall those memories by eating the same food. Or, for those who don’t get the opportunity to travel, eating Japanese or Thai food might be the next best thing to being there. 

This week I looked at just two Pan-Asian restaurants: Mamagoto, a franchise out of India, and Edamame in the Marriott Kathmandu Hotel. While we all like to get value for our money, sometimes it is better to pay a bit extra and upgrade in terms of experience… 

Mamagoto

Mamagoto: Japanese for “playing house” or “play with food” Having opened in Pani Pokhari earlier this year, Mamagoto is an amazing restaurant in terms of style. Its look is funky, quirky and fun with huge cartoon like posters on the walls and ceiling. This casual dining restaurant states it is a ‘fusion of inspiration from Asian street hawkers, our extensive travels, mad experiences and … secret kitchens…’ With three different seating areas, the restaurant can sit around 50 diners at a time. I’ve been here twice. Both times for lunch. Both times the restaurant was empty except for me.  

Photo: Mahendra Khadka

Luckily the first time I had a friend with me and we made our own fun, taking photographs of the décor and ourselves. Service was slow but we hardly noticed. We wanted the platter to try out the different items on it. This was unavailable. We instead chose Thai Som Tam Salad (Rs 329), Street Chicken Satay (Indonesia, Rs 629), Gado Gado Salad (Indonesia, Rs 429) and Laksa Tribute (Rs 749/ 949/1399). Certainly everything tasted quite authentic, and I was more than happy with the Laksa which took me back to when I worked in Singapore. We tried some of the mocktails, Kiwi and Mint Collins (Rs 240), and Cranberry and Kaffir Lime Punch (Rs240). Pretty tasty too. After the salty and spicy we wanted something sweet. Unfortunately there was only Thai Sticky Rice and Mango and Ice Cream on the menu, both disappointingly small in size.

The second time I went was in order to write this review. After being given the menu it took a further 15 minutes for any waiter to come to ask if I wanted anything. I had previously asked for the lights to be turned on as well as the AC. The lights worked, the AC did not. It was stifling and airless inside. There was no music; no ambiance at all. The open kitchen echoed with the loud chatter of the staff. I guess no one had told the staff it’s supposed to be a fun experience restaurant. Yes, the décor is beautiful, and the food that I have tried was tasty and, to me, authentic, but if they want repeat customers the staff need to live up to the funky, bright, larger than life décor! Call 9810076824 for reservations.

Edamame by Marriott Kathmandu

Edamame: Japanese green soyabeans
Executive Chef Sanjeev Ranjan took us on a culinary tour of Asia in Marriott Kathmandu’s Pan-Asian restaurant, Edamame. And what a tour it turned out to be! We were greeted by smiling staff who settled us at our table. To identify each table, a small wooden log had its own unique spice name engraved in it. 

Photo: Mahendra Khadka

We were seated at table Star Anise before being transferred to the private room which seats 10-12 diners. “Everything in Edamame is unique. From the spice table names, to the local looking place mats, the locally sourced tiger chopstick holders, to the imported chinaware,” explained Chef Ranjan.  

Straight away we were served jasmine tea, water and an amuse bouche (French for a complimentary bite-sized hors d’œuvre). This was a wonderful sushi with delicate plating. Looking around the 56 seat room, I noticed each table was discreetly separated from the next for privacy. 

There is also a live station which you would see in any sushi restaurant, where diners can sit around on very comfortable (and large, thank goodness!) high chairs/ stools.

Focusing on Thai and Japanese food, we were also introduced to Chef Somryethai Syksamai from Thailand (fondly know as Chef Ninja) and Krishna Dhungana, a Nepali who worked in Japan as a sushi chef for 19 years. Chinese style dim sum is also served. In fact we were told starting soon would be a dim sum set lunch menu at the weekends. Dinner is only served from 6.30pm onwards.

Between the dim sum, yakatori, sushi, soups, salads, main courses and desserts it was hard to know what to choose. But thankfully the menu is marked with the chef’s recommendations so we went for those. One of the highlights was the Flaming Salmon. And flaming it was, live at our table! Not a fish eater, I actually did enjoy the salmon, cut thinly as smoked salmon would be. The dim sum consisted of several different kinds ranging from Edamame and Truffle to Chicken Sui Mai (infused with beetroot to give it a bright red color). The Asian Mushroom dim sum was intriguingly black. 

Having lived in Hong Kong and Singapore where dim sum is king, I thought these were outstanding in their lightness of taste and modern appearance. Next we were transported to Thailand with yakitori style Bangkok Street Flair. Oh my, I thought I had died and gone to heaven! Skewers of chicken, prawns, tenderloin and pork each had their own individual spices and sauce cooked through them.  Nestled on a bed of mushrooms, ginger, red chilies and other spices I wanted to eat the whole lot myself! 

But luckily I did not as the next course (under the mains) was Tamarind Sesame Duck Breast.  Served with a duck mince filled bao with sesame seed snaps and a plum glaze this was duck breast taken to the next level! 

Photo: Mahendra Khadka

Meantime, the Som Tam (green papaya salad) cleansed the palate while the Gang Khew Whan (homemade green curry) transported us to the Land of Smiles. The small selection of desserts includes Exotic Asian Fruits, Tab Pim Krob, or chestnut jelly with coconut milk, and Japanese Pancakes with bamboo ice cream. We settled for the Sangkaya Ob or baked coconut caramel custard. According to my dining companion, this can be found all over Bangkok. Somehow I have managed to miss it. It is very similar to a crème caramel, but with the Asian addition of coconut.  I will not miss it next time! 

We only took water and jasmine tea with our meal but there is a drinks menu, heavily focusing on Sake and Japanese whisky, but cocktails and mocktails are also available. At a price! In fact, overall, the menu prices were much lower than I anticipated. Except for the drinks. I haven’t mentioned food prices here as a new menu is due out within the next few days (with the same chef specials mentioned here), but as a rough guide expect to pay around Rs 2,500 for the meat and seafood dishes. With the exception of the lobster, which is much more. 

Thinking about the ambiance of the restaurant I was pleasantly surprised to see that although I had thought Edamame would be ‘a bit posh’, it is in fact very relaxed and laid back. You could come for a business dinner or a family gathering, so flexible is the style. My only (and only) ‘constructive criticism’ is over the music they played. Definitely not very Asian, not even ‘modern Asian’ or in keeping with the overall feel of the place. Someone needs to look at that—please! A shout out to our wonderful waiter, Prakash Paudel, who made the evening even more enjoyable. For reservations call 01-4443040.

The path to the 8th Silence Festival is all paved. And this year, Nepal’s biggest metal music fiesta features a heavy line-up of international artists, including the legendary ‘Testament’ from the US. Slated for December 14 at Tangalwood, Kathmandu, the Silence Festival has already sold out the limited number of early bird tickets it issued. But the audience can still buy tickets priced Rs 2,500 at the door. It’s an all-day concert and with the limited audience capacity you might want to get to the venue early.

Here we bring you a compilation of the international artists scheduled to perform.

Testament is an American thrash metal band from Berkeley, California. Formed in 1982 under the name Legacy, the band's current lineup comprises guitarists Eric Peterson and Alex Skolnick, lead vocalist Chuck Billy, drummer Gene Hoglan, and bassist Steve Di Giorgio. 

Since its inception, Testament has had numerous lineup changes, leaving Peterson as the only constant member. In 1986, Billy replaced original singer Steve “Zetro” Souza (who left the band to join Exodus as the replacement for Paul Baloff), just before recording their first studio album, “The Legacy,” and has been a member since. 

Testament is credited as one of the most popular and influential bands of the thrash metal scene, as well as among the leaders of the second wave of the genre in the late 1980s. They have also been referred to as one of the “big eight” of thrash metal, along with Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax, Exodus, Overkill and Death Angel. The band has sold over 1.4 million albums in the US since the beginning of the SoundScan era and over 14 million worldwide. To date, Testament has released 12 studio albums (one of which is a collection of re-recorded songs), four live albums, five compilation albums, 12 singles and three DVDs.

Burgerkill is an Indonesian metal band, originally from Bandung, the capital of West Java. Named after the fast food restaurant, Burger King, as a prank, the band was founded in May 1995 by Aris Tanto a.k.a. Eben, sometimes called ‘Ebenz’, then a young man from Jakarta who came to Bandung to continue his study. In Bandung, Ebenz met Ivan Scumbag, Kimung, and Dadan. These four comprised the first line-up of Burgerkill in 2013 and won Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards in “Metal As F*ck” category.

Burgerkill was formed in Ujungberung region, located on the east side of Bandung city. Ujungberung is not only known as Metal Village, but also the center of Sundanese traditional art and culture, such as bela diri benjang, angklung, and kecapi suling.

Queso are a Filipino Rock band that enjoyed mainstream success in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The band eventually broke up after the release of their third album but reunited in 2012. At the height of their popularity, Queso (previously Cheese) were considered part of the Filipino Nu Metal genre. The band is best known for the single “Mottaka,” a song about friendship, from their second album “Pilipinas.”

The band’s former and current members all grew up in the local rock and metal scene. The band’s singer Ian Tayao and guitarist Ocho Toleran each has background in other projects and with different artists. Queso’s sound, especially in their final years before disbanding, evolved and became more experimental, blending Rock, Reggae, Funk, Folk, Dub, and Jazz.

Trainwreck is an American southern and comedy rock band, formed in LA, California in 2002. It was founded by Tenacious D guitarist Kyle Gass and actor JR Reed. The band originally started out as a three-piece, with Reed on vocals, Gass on guitar and friend Kevin Weisman as the drummer. The band had pseudonyms for its members. Reed was “Darryl Lee Donald”, Gass was “Klip Calhoun” and Weisman was “Kenny Bob Thornton”. Gass and Reed began to search for backing musicians, as they felt Trainwreck’s musical style was “too close to Tenacious D”.

The band met electric guitarist John Konesky and bassist John Spiker in Ohio through a mutual friend. The two Ohio men relocated to Los Angeles to form Trainwreck as “John Bartholomew Shredman” and “Boy Johnny” respectively. Nate Rothacker replaced Weisman as the drummer in the mid-2000s, going under the pseudonym “Dallas St. Bernard”. The band released one studio album, one live album, one EP and a single before splitting in 2010. It would reform in 2018 and announce a reunion tour, as well as a second studio album.

Godless slowly rose to the very top of India’s death metal class from their inauspicious origins in an exotic metal music scene. Interestingly, through this gradual but inexorable climb, the members band didn’t distinguish themselves so much for their innovations as for their unapologetic commitment to pure, unadulterated, lightning-fast, ear-shredding, thrash-influenced death metal.

Since their formation in mid-2015 by musicians who have been part of the Indian metal scene for years, the Hyderabad-based band has also broken into other old-school metallic forms.

Slowly developing their craft over the next year, singer Kaushal LS, guitarists Ravi Nidamarthy and Rohit Nair, bassist Abbas Razvi, and drummer Aniketh Yadav eventually recorded a four-track EP with the mission statement-like title of “Centuries of Decadence,” which was mixed and mastered by Joe Haley of Australian technical death metal band Psycroptic. After being brought under the Transcending Obscurity Records fold, Godless launched their EP in May 2016, which was met with rave reviews in media, including features in Rolling Stone India, Metal Hammer, Terrorizer, and XXL Rock.

Q.    What is your favorite travel destination?
A.    I’m quite the wanderer. I don’t have a specific place that is my favorite.

Q.    What is your guilty pleasure?
A.    Binge buying camera accessories.

Q.    If you could have coffee with a person, living or dead, who would it be?
A.    Definitely Alan Watts.

Q.    What is your go-to outfit?
A.    Anything that’s comfortable.

Q.    What work do you most enjoy doing?
A.    I enjoy anything to do with cameras.

Q.    What do you want to be remembered for?
A.    I’d like to be remembered for the things that I will one day say that will make the most sense to a lot of people.

Q.    If you could change something in the world, what would you first change?
A.    It’s more of a ‘growth’ thing than a change to be honest. I’d love to let people understand that we’re slowly being consumed a little too much by ‘social media’ than what’s healthy, which in return is causing people to lose their sense of empathy.

APEX CELEB QUIZ  #15

Q.    What is Ayushman DS Joshi's biggest pet peeve?
    a) Body odor    b) Dirty nails

Send us your answer on our Facebook page. One winner selected by lucky draw will get a Rs 2,000 coupon from Dallé.  

Nepal made sweeping regulatory changes in the new ‘National Policy on Regulation and Control of Alcohol 2017’. The Ministry of Health had taken the initiative with the backing of other ministries, child right activists and public health promoters. Ranging from a total ban on alcohol advertisements to more stringent licensing requirements for liquor dispensaries, the goal was to restrict access to alcohol and reduce consumption in the long run. Later, in November 2018, the Home Ministry brought more restrictions and pledged to enforce the existing liquor policy more effectively.

An interesting facet of this policy was the ban on selling liquor by grocery and department stores and the requirement of a specific license to operate liquor shops. This effectively separated the liquor business from general retail shops. But it has created an unexpected scenario, one where the number of liquor stores in some locales has grown exponentially. Pepsicola of Kathmandu (on the way to Bhaktapur) is one such area, where many booze businesses targeting a rapidly increasing population have opened up.

Soni Paudel has run Soni Liquor Store in Pepsicola for over five years. While she is ambivalent about new regulations, she has strong opinion on the opening of new liquor shops. “Many new ones have opened up over the past few years. Five years ago, this area had only two or three. Now they are everywhere,” says Paudel, whose business has slowed down in recent years. She believes this is not because people are drinking less, but are going to the stores closest to them. Paudel has a high number of regulars, so her business hasn’t taken a big hit. But she is certain that not all liquor shop owners have it equally easy.

S.N.G. Dealers is one of the newly-opened stores in the area, just opposite Paudel’s shop. Bishal Khatiwoda started the business three years ago with high expectations, which have not been met. He blames the policy of easy licensing for liquor stores. Says Khatiwoda, “The number of stores has increased—maybe by 50 percent—in the past year, but many have also gone out of business as profit margins have dropped.” Khatiwoda says he currently makes half of what he used to when he opened his store; he believes similar is the case with every other retailer in the area. Business seems to have fallen even though the number of people drinking alcohol has probably increased.

Sun, sin and soakers

Manju Magar has been living in this area for over seven years. She does not mind the increase in the number of liquor stores around her. “I don’t see a problem, maybe because I don’t drink much. This is a pretty affluent area, so you don’t see loafers drinking in the streets and creating a scene,” says Magar. Real-estate prices rose significantly after 2012 when Sun City apartments were built, bringing in well-off families into the previously sparsely inhabited area. As for alcohol-related domestic violence, Magar says she’s unaware of any significant case.

Apart from sales restrictions, Khatiwoda and Paudel, the two retailers, find it difficult to follow some rules. With the minimum drinking age now raised to 21 (from the previous 18), retailers struggle to correctly identify someone’s age without a valid ID card. “It’s not practical to ask for identification if a customer’s age is not clear from their face,” says Paudel. She believes it will hurt her business and will not prevent underage drinking, as people under 21 can easily go to some other shop that does not ask for identification.

Says Khatiwoda, “When those under 21 come here to buy alcohol, you can’t be sure if they’re getting it for their parents or for themselves.” Both he and Paudel think people sending their children to buy liquor is a problem and wish parents were more aware. “Whenever kids come to buy drinks or cigarettes, I always ask them to send their parents,” adds Khatiwoda.

S.N.G. Dealers and Soni Liquor Store fall under the jurisdiction of Inspector Sudhir Rai at the Kadhaghari Police Department. He admits a large number of liquor stores have opened up under his watch in recent years. “Demand for alcohol is rising and liquor stores and bhattis (local bars) are opening up at an alarming pace. Our culture’s perception of alcohol is twisted; we consider it essential for celebrations. But in the past few years, it has become a problem.”

Plethora of problems

Excessive alcohol consumption can lead to disorderly conduct and even societal ills; it is considered one of the main culprits of domestic violence. According to a report by Women and Children Service Center (WCSC) of the Nepal Police, one third of all domestic violence cases reported last year in Kathmandu were alcohol related. “Obviously, crime has increased in line with alcohol consumption. Domestic abuse, child abuse, petty crimes, gang violence and particularly vehicular accidents are increasing and alcohol is often involved,” Rai adds. He believes alcohol’s cultural acceptance makes it a gateway to harder drugs.

Apart from social ills, excessive and regular consumption of alcohol can have adverse health effects. Apart from liver disease, pancreatitis, ulcers and gastrointestinal problems, excessive drinking can even lead to brain damage, especially in people who begin drinking before 24. Dr. Santosh Pokhrel works as a general physician at Saadhak Polyclinic, Pepsicola. He says the number of locals seeking treatment for alcohol-related ailments is rapidly increasing. “I’ve noticed people, mostly those between 25 and 40, increasingly affected by ailments like Alcohol Liver Disease,” says Pokhrel. As if to lend credence to the doctor’s claim, an obviously drunk middle-aged man reeking of local rakshi staggers into the clinic and starts pestering the receptionist to measure his blood sugar level.

Although the government is taking steps to curb excessive drinking, its policies seem short-sighted and have ironically given people even easier access to alcohol. And the rules are also being flouted openly. Though the policy caps the number of liquor stores in a ward at five, there are a lot more in some locales. In a kilometer-long stretch in Suncity, Pepsicola, there are nine liquor stores, six of which opened within the past three years.

In the same stretch, nearly a third of kirana pasals, none of whose owners were willing to be identified, admitted to stocking liquor in low quantities. Says Inspector Rai, “Although there is a cap on the number of liquor stores in an area, we have not been asked to enforce it by higher authorities.” He also blames lack of coordination between the license distributors and the local police for the gap between policy and implementation.

For now, new liquor stores keep sprouting up largely because licenses are easy to get and the government does not enforce its capping policy. How long these businesses can stay afloat amid cut-throat competition is another matter altogether. As far as their impact on the society is concerned, it is subtle but perhaps grievously harmful in the long term.