Talking about the love of food and the joy of eating, seven students from Trinity International College in Dillibazaar share their thoughts and memories. Prerana Adhikari, Dikchhyanta Bajracharya, Awantika Pal, Ereeka Bhandari, Nancy Rawal, Shrijesh Siwakoti and Pemba Gyaltsen are all A-level students at Trinity International College, who share the spirit of living to eat.[break]
“Food is my first priority,” says Prerana Adhikari while Pemba Gyaltsen shares that he especially loves to try new food varieties. The rest of the conversation which took place one afternoon, in their college canteen, follows.
Bhswor Ojha/Republica
L to R: Dikchhyanta Bajracharya, Ereeka Bhandari, Awantika Pal, Prerana Adhikari, Nancy Rawal, Shrijesh Siwakoti and Pemba Gyaltsen.
What sort of food is your favorite?
Prerana: Momo! I especially like the ones from Bawarchi Restaurant.
Awantika: Although I’m not exactly into food, chicken chilly from Tama in Naxal is my favorite.
Nancy: I love spaghetti. From how it looks to the way it tastes, it’s delicious. Also, I love Korean food and I often go eat Korean with my friends.
Pemba: Chips chilly. From any place.
Dikchhyanta: I really like burgers from Crazy Burger in Thamel, especially the chicken one. Apart from that, cakes and pastries are my favorites.
Shrijesh: I can eat a lot of sweet things, no matter how full I am.
Ereeka: I like eating junk food.
Do you prefer eating out or at home?
Pemba: I prefer homemade food because it’s healthier.
Awantika: I like homemade food, like daal, bhat, and chicken. I love meat and can’t imagine myself as a vegetarian.
Dikchhyanta: I like eating out like once a week. Otherwise, I love the food that my mom and grand mom makes.
If you do have to go eat out, where do you go?
Dikchhyanta: I usually go to Crazy Burger and BK’s in Thamel and Grasshopper in Basantapur. I love Crazy Burger because the burger there is really good. If I’m loaded, then I like going to the food court at Civil Mall in Sundhara.
Shrijesh: I love Momo Magic in Maharajgunj. The momos you get there are like the ones from Darjeeling.
Nancy: If I go out with family, then we usually go to The Bakery Café outlets otherwise with friends, I go to Thamel and Boudha. In Boudha, there’s this small place where you get Laping for Rs 25 a plate. That’s where I go with my friends when we’re broke.
Ereeka: I go to restaurants in Durbarmarg to eat out.
Prerana: I don’t go out much but when in school, I used to go to my friend’s momo place, to eat free momos!
Awantika: I like going to the Food Court at Civil Mall in Sundhara because I find it cozy.
Pemba: I usually eat around Boudha, and I got to Thamel or Durbarmarg with my family. I’m very specific about cleanliness and hygiene of the places I eat at.
Let’s hear about your memorable food memories.
Nancy: This one time, during New Year’s Eve, we went to a friend’s place with frozen momos. We had to wait for our friends to show up and we didn’t have a refrigerator so the ice started to melt and the momos became soggy. Later, we ate them anyway, although it didn’t taste that good.
Ereeka: I’ve tried making thukpa with friends many times, but it never turned out good. Only after the fourth or fifth time, did we succeed in making it well.
Prerana: During the last days of school, my friends and I went to a friend’s house. Me and this another friend started making French fries. We were continuously making and eating fries for like about four hours and only stopped when the gas cylinder ran out.
Dikchhyanta: My cousins and I were making cake but it turned out to be like churrpi. This was probably because we just Googled the recipe but didn’t check out the techniques. The cake was so hard that my grandfather suggested we smash the cake with a hammer and eat it.
Awantika: Every year, during my birthday, I invite my friend’s at my place and we have cake fights.
Pemba: During Lhosar, we make a dish called Ghuntuk. One Lhosar, my brother was preparing the dish while I was playing cards. While the dish was cooking in a pressure cooker, my brother came to join me. We started playing and I insisted my brother to play more rounds while in the kitchen, the food was all burnt.
Shrijesh: One of my friends had a ‘break-up party’, in which we decided to cut a cake. But, the cake was frozen solid so we decided to heat it a bit in the oven and it went wrong. It became very hard and we literally had to break it up to eat it!
Sure, you like to eat. But what about cooking? Do you like it as much?
Pemba: I’ve always been interested in cooking and have done so ever since I was nine-years-old.
Dikchhyanta: I like cooking but not the normal every-day cooking. I’m good at preparing sandwiches.
Shrijesh: I don’t know how to cook anything and I also don’t like cooking.
Nancy: I cook sometimes. I make really good chicken chilly.
Ereeka: I don’t like cooking because I don’t know how to cook well.
Prerana: My sister cooks while I do the dishes.
Awantika: I know how to cook but I only do it once
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