Recipe From The Neighbourhood 

Have you ever tried to cook restaurant food that tasted so nice at home? Have you googled for the food recipes you see around and occasionally savour?

If your answer is 'yes,' you might be disappointed for not meeting the taste expectation of the much-loved dish or for not finding the proper recipe or ingredients for the planned food item. But most of us don't care about the recipe, not even the typical delicacies that appear pervasively across the country, sometimes beyond the borders. 

If you are a foreigner and want to cook Nepali indigenous food alone, it's pretty hard to get the recipe, with some exceptions on YouTube. 

Chef Ghanashyam Kandel has made an impressive debut by taking the initiative to help us with the food recipes in the everyday menu of the downtown café to star hotels. 

Timur (Prepare with Passion: Asian Flavours from Bihun Nepal to Haneda Japan) features an extensive list of food from Nepal, India, and Japan, many of which are common in South Asian countries. Chef Kandel has divided the 227 delicacies into 15 categories. This impressive inclusion of national, regional, and continental food has made the cookbook a treasure in your kitchen at your home or restaurant. 

Chef Kandel's career in hotels and cooking in Nepal, India, and Japan has helped create this magnificent edifice, 'Timur,' which aims to satisfy people's taste buds worldwide. 

It is a precious gift, especially to culinary enthusiasts. "I am driven by the prospect of introducing Nepali cuisine to new markets, leveraging branding strategies to carve out a niche in regions like America where diverse culinary experiences thrive," says Kandel, who aspires to expand his hospitality business to the Americas, Australia, and Nepal. Through the cookbook, he has tried to blend traditional Nepali flavors with global ones to offer a fresh and satisfying experience. He loves creating fusion in food so that it could surprise food lovers. 

The book has the prospect of surprising you as it includes almost all the daily food items on the menus in the South Asian region. For example, Raita is uncommon in Nepal, but the book features five different varieties/flavors. 

It includes salad, appetizers/snacks, soup, tandoori items, kebab, curries, noodles, naan, rice, sushi, and dessert with ample vegetarian and non-vegetarian dish options. 

Kandel has presented numerous curry items under five major categories – chicken, mutton or lamb, vegetable, seafood, and Thai- and has specified the recipe step-by-step. 

However, the book features only one drink, 'plain lassi,' while two traditional Nepali dishes - 'Kodoko Roti' and 'Dhido' are presented in a separate section. Kandel has included the Korean dessert 'Bingsu' and East Asian' Tom-Yam soup' in his book. There are plenty of items that could be unheard of for you. 

Chef Kandel's book has followed the suit of Chef Santosh Shah's 'Ayla: A Feast of Nepali Dishes from Terai, Hills and the Himalayas' and a couple of other publications that aim to promote Nepali food. However, Kandel's food fusion and inclusion of the South Asia regional and Japanese menu make the book unique.

Printed on glossy paper with good photographs, 'Timur' can be a good collection for food lovers and culinary enthusiasts. According to him, this is more than a cookbook; it celebrates Nepal's rich culinary heritage and place in the global food landscape. Kandel will likely get a request for the Nepali version of this book. 

The book is eligible to be in the corner of your kitchen. 

Chef Kandel is from Bihun of Baglung district and runs multiple restaurants and cafes in Japan. His journey of promoting Nepali indigenous food wouldn't be concluded with the book. 

He is publishing the second book, Bhojanlipi, which he has prepared with another celebrity chef, Chef Durga Bahadur Khadka. 

The book is in the final publication stage and is expected to introduce Nepali cuisine to the global market significantly.

(The writer is TRN journalist.)