In Nepal, a meal is not divided into starter-main-dessert: everything arrives together on a large brass platter, the thali. At the center sits the bhat (steamed rice), surrounded by small bowls: dal (lentils), one or two tarkari (stewed vegetables), an achar (tangy pickle), sometimes meat on festive days. You eat with your right hand, mixing the rice with each preparation. Among high-caste Hindus like the royal family, order, ritual purity (jutho, the prohibition of defiled contact), and abstention from beef govern the table.

Nepali palace cuisine is recognized by two signatures: jimbu (dried Himalayan chives, fried in ghee at the last moment to flavor the dal) and pungent mustard oil which serves as the base cooking fat, heightened with a tarka (aromatic oil poured boiling over the dish).