Madeinepal

Horrible guitar playing guy and Astha Tamang-Maskey

2012-02-14T10:44:00.000-08:00

If you haven't checked out the blog intro click here.

Meanwhile the horrible guitar playingcontinues next door. I should now seriously think about knocking the door and startclapping my hands right in front of his face shouting “Bravo Bravo! Excelento!,잘해,잘해!” in weird heavy KorianizedItalian accent. I am sure he will end up doing well with the strings but heshould be quite aware that he could book a practice room for free only a blockaway from our dorms. I truly regret the time Halal showed me those beautifullooking ear plugs in some store and opted not wasting my time on them. If the "horrible guitar playing guy" or the "guy who should not be named" still continues with his stunt, I shall gladlystart mine: singing. He should then have a very good idea with what he’sdealing with. Bring it on, biyatch.

Don’t get me wrong again, I love music.Besides sleeping and eating good food (good things in life eh?) doing stuffs relatedto music is ultra fun. I listen to it when I am drunk or sober, when I amwaiting for the damn subway, when I am taking a dump, when I am in my classstaring at the prof..errmm..no no I don’t do that. Point here is that musicis as important as food and I am sure most of them out there share the samepassion.

In all my time staying and growing up inNepal, I got listen to some interesting bands from the local music scene. Goingto gigs and organizing them, getting music sources from my seniors and havinghad the opportunity to actually have active scene members in my family, I canconsider myself to be very fortunate to have been exposed to such material.

Astha Tamang Maskey needs (almost) nointroduction. Anyone who had the opportunity to lend an ear to her should definitelyhave some idea who she is and where she stands in Nepali music scene. Hertalent in music is just extraordinary. It’s no wonder that she attracts thebest in her business to play alongside her.

Having had the pleasure of knowing her froma very young age, eating her cheese that she so tactfully saved and hid insidethe freeze, destroying her pillows on usual afternoon pillow fights, stealingher money for KitKat that she saved leaving her absolutely no clue, setting herAsterix Obelix and TinTin comics on fire (oops!), forcing her watch me play Ageof Empires on her then transparent pentiumII Apple pc and not let her touch thedamn mouse should show some degree of how well I knew her.

I also remember her being incrediblyintelligent and dynamic. Back in those pre-school Glen Buds days when we weretogether, she was the one who completed my exams for me, she was the one whowon all the medals that could possibly be won and then later went on to play thekeys, guitars, violin, show and innate ability to sing, dance and playbasketball like WOW! while still excelling in studies at Rato Bangla School. Thenthere was this small issue about moving to Canada.

An album, an EP and countless gigs, interviews,awards, tours later she has firmly established herself in her favorite field.She is currently working on a new album and should be out before she heads outto Canada in 2 months time.

Album: Sabai Thikai Huncha (studio release)

Producer: Rohit Shakya (currently with Jindabaad!)

Jam packed with 8 impressively written andcomposed tracks, this album is sure to hit the spot, the way Kumar(Harold andKumar goes to White Castle) says it when he takes a bite off that White Castleburger. If you want the album, just let me know. Or you can buy the tracksdirectly from her website which I have duly provided below.

EP: 11:11 (home release)

Producer: Rohit Shakya (currently with Jindabaad!)

Out of 100 hard copies of this rare ofpiece of art which have been actually made, none of them is actually available forretail sale. Take that! Just kidding. You should be able to listen to the 6tracks both on her facebook fan page and her website or simply get a digitalcopy from cdbaby. I shall (again) duly provide the links below.

Like how Malcom Gladwell puts in his book, there's a number of people behind every talent. As someone who has been able to watch her closely, its worth noting the influence and positive encouragement she has got from her ever loving sister Pooja Shrestha all these years. She was able to create an ambiance that allowed Astha to meet a lot of exciting and interesting people that she would later work with. We love you.

Astha Tamang Maskey official website click here.

Facebook fan page click here.

Downloads:

Cdbaby (Sabai thikai huncha) click here.

Itunes click here.

Cdbaby (11:11) click here.

Itunes click here.

The thing about MoMos

2012-02-11T23:31:00.000-08:00

If you haven't read the blog intro click here.

Having been woken up by some very horribleguitar playing by my dorm-mate next door AND having had a very very(multiply as you like) painful ski tripthe day before, I was left with no option but to mutter out curses earlymorning only to be abetted by my dear friend’s text sent from nearly 4600kilometers away from where I am from.

In a way it did me good. I had been asleepfor nearly 12 hrs and with the semester knocking on my ass, I have found itincreasingly necessary to discipline myself. It is time to dust off mybookshelf and gear up for yet another challenging semester ahead.

Plate of pure delight: MoMo:

But before all that, there’s this small dealabout Momos. I don’t really have a clue about its humble origins, but boy am I gladthat somebody thought of it before I existed. Every bite releases something sotasteful, so intense, so amazing that you are left with a sense of pure orgasmicsatisfaction that few foods can ever compete.

Nepal is home to the great Himalayas, weall know that, but is also a home to the most dumpling loving people in theworld. With wide varieties of masalas or spieces at their disposal compoundedby meat courtesy of poor buffalos, Nepalese have been able to master the art inpreparing them.

So if you are not apt in making yourselfsome at home, you might want to check these places out. (and what places you might want toavoid)

Momo Magic, Maharajgunj

They have redefined what momos shouldactually taste like. I gotta admit, what they make is just so damn good that writingdown here does no justice to those mouth watering pieces of long shaped momos.Whats more, the tomato sauce that they provide combines perfectly with its solidcounterpart bringing that tingling spiciness in the mix.

Rs 75 for a plate of buff, Rs 90 forchicken and Rs 60 for veggie.

Taste: 9

Sauce: 9

Hygiene: 8

Filling: 5

Service: 7

Hot Momo:, Balwatar

Having had often gone to the place before Iended up in Korea, Hot momo: had for most of its time stayed true to its name.Reasonably priced with a bowl of hot soup with every plate, it soon became alocal hangout for us living close by. Unfortunately though, a year and halfyears later, I ordered myself a plate only to be truly disappointed on what wasto offer. Firstly, there was no soup. No sign of soup! Secondly, they wereamazingly slow in service even though the restaurant was nearly empty. Thirdly,the momos were a biggg disappointment. In all the negative vibe that I got, thesauce stood out to be the only savior as I ate hoping that I will never have tocome here again.

Buff price: 65

Taste: 4

Sauce: 8

Service: 4

Hygiene: 7

Filling: 7

Dragon, Jawalakhel.

Quite possibly the juiciest of momos that Ihad in a while, Dragon’s momo has outdone my level of expectations. The ambienceis a little better than most bhattis, but when the momos are that good, youtend to ignore whats around you so it really does not matter. The soup wasfantastic and with an array of sauce to choose from, you will be sure to gohome well and truly satisfied.

Buff Price:Rs 55

Taste: 8

Sauce: 9

Service: 8

Hygiene: 5

Filling: 6

Everest Momo:, Bhagwatibal, Naxal

You get the sense of how good the food isby the measure of how many people tend to throng at that particular restaurant.Everest Momo is one of those kinds of places. Dark, cumbersome but lively, you literallyget to see how they cook those “extraterrestrial-awesome” like momos as thereis no physical barriers between you and the kitchen. In other words, thekitchen IS the restaurant.

And what can you say about the momos? Dippedin cold watery looking spicy sauce, the taste of hot momo could have nevertasted better. They sure know how to cook them.

Buff price: Rs 60

Taste: 8

Sauce: 7

Service: 7

Hygiene: 4

Filling: 5

That should end part I of the momo series. Iwill be writing more in coming days. Please note that the prices in Nepal areas stable as the politics in middle-east so do expect them to rise at any time.

First Blog

2012-02-09T04:08:00.000-08:00

I am quite unaware of blog ethics, whatblogs shouldn't include and all that crap. What I am aware is that you have toread what I write down. If you want to…. that is.

I will be touching down on the Nepali handmadearticles in the next two or three entries:

First stop: Nepali Bags

These colorful vibrant items are enough forgirls to go gaga on you (No guarantees though). Ever since I bought mine andwalked around my university campus, people have taken notice of it. Easy tocarry and strong enough to hold my engineering books, the bag has never receiveda single “shit bag” comment. When I asked my friends what they wanted from myhometown, they all looked down at my bag and said “You have a very pretty thingthere”. No wonder.

Having had curbed some of the demand on theitem, I would say this would make one fine gift to anyone who hadn’t had thepleasure of owing one. The bag comes in all different creative shapes, cocktailof colors and sizes but the major difference comes with the material that’s beingused. The one with the plane white look is made out of hemp thread while themulti-colored ones are made out of local normal thick thread. The texture ofcloth that we can observe is due to a special hand weaving technique that theseartisans have been able to master through the ages.

And it’s cheap too. A bag under 10 bucksis, in my opinion, a really good deal. The only problem comes when you have towash it. Direct washing will cause the material to shed its color visibly. Drycleaners should wrap up that problem pretty well.

The shop I usually end up in gives a prettygood deal if you happen to buy more than what you need. Besides bag, the shopgives you plenty of other options to choose from; strange looking handmadelockets to pencil boxes to small cute little Yaks.

Intro:

2012-02-09T00:53:00.000-08:00

madeinepal

I have finally got my ass to sit down andconcentrate on something that was long overdue. Don’t get me wrong-I lovewriting, it’s just that my laptop takes a whole lot of time to open.

Having had gone back to Nepal for someweeks, I realized that by spending your cash on suppose a cup of tea or sadhekoWai-Wai in a bhatti, or getting a bite off that juicy momo: in some random momo-only-restauranthelps to support the local economy. Now you might say this is rather trivial,that we all know this crap, but for me, it was a rejuvenating realization thatthe more I spend my money on food and on products that are purely Nepalese, themore I was indirectly helping those families, those children that depend on theperson running the business.

You, with your money can help the Nepalieconomy crawl its way up. Nepal has some very interesting shopping and culinaryexperiences to be unleashed. The items that I am going to discuss here is goingto help you navigate your options, plan your budget on buying products that areauthentic to Nepal and thus, would insure that the money you invest is going tohelp the local community as a whole.

Taking inspiration from what AnthonyBourdain does in his culinary adventure, I will make sure to include the placesI re-visited and the food that my mouth dipped into or just plainly the things Ibought as a gift for my friends here in Korea.