After my hands fully air dried to ensure their cleanliness, I stuck my finger into the food on my dish. In Nepal, some people eat with a spoon, but most people eat with their right hand. My hand jumped back off the plate due to how hot the food felt. For a moment, I blew onto the plate until the food came to an edible temperature. Finally I scooped up my mixture of rice, beans and vegetables with great technique. Four fingers posed as a shovel to retrieve the food, and my thumb slid it into my mouth using a wiper motion. It felt warm and healthy, but in a good way. When my plate neared empty, my family readily provided seconds. With great pleasure, I continued to scoop food into my mouth until my stomach reached capacity.
Vegetable preparations begin approximately one hour before food is served. However, the rice starts cooking in the rice-cooker slightly earlier and stays warm until everything else is ready. People who don't own a rice-cooker just make do with a pot and water over the fire and ladle out extra fluid as necessary.
First, someone peels and cuts the potatoes while another peels and mashes the garlic. Meanwhile, someone else trims the leafy greens known as saag and piles them into a pot. Other various vegetables like tomatoes, squash or cucumber might also be prepped depending on their availability.
Next, loud whistling sounds erupt from the pressure cookers as the vegetables cook. The tarkari typically goes without a lot of seasoning while the achar mixes heavily with a variety of spices and sometimes lemon juice.
