Every spice in our kitchen has a purpose

Every spice in our kitchen has a purpose. Garlic and ginger are powerful antiinflammatories. Turmeric, with its compound curcumin, is one of the most studied natural medicines in modern science. Fenugreek seeds help regulate blood sugar. Red chillies carry capsaicin, which boosts your metabolism. Our ancestors built an entire pharmacology into a single meal. And then there is the Jhanne. Hot ghee poured over cumin, garlic, dried chilli — and that explosion of aroma fills the entire room. When I smell it, I am not in Texas. I am in my mother's kitchen. And today, alongside the dal, we are also making Kukhura ko Masu — chicken tarkari. In Nepal, chicken is not everyday food. It is what you cook when someone important comes to your home. When there is a festival. A wedding. A celebration. Today, we cook it because we are celebrating something too — the memory of home, carried all the way to Irving, Texas. Dal bhat may be the national meal, but Nepal has 131 ethnic groups — and each of them brings something extraordinary to the table. Today we also prepared Chukauni — a Newari dish from the Kathmandu Valley. Boiled potatoes, roasted sesame, curd, spices. The Newar people are the original inhabitants of the Kathmandu Valley, and their cuisine is one of the most complex and ancient in South Asia. This dish reminds us that Nepali food is not one story. It is many stories, sharing one plate.