Sekuwa

Sekuwa is what happens when Nepali spices meet an open charcoal fire. Chunks of goat, chicken, or buff (buffalo) are marinated in a paste of cumin, coriander, turmeric, ginger-garlic, mustard oil, and enough chili to make your lips tingle, then skewered and grilled over white-hot charcoal. The fat drips, the smoke rises, and the smell travels three streets over. That smell is the unofficial dinner bell of every Nepali town.

Dharan, the bustling bazaar town at the foothills of eastern Nepal, is the undisputed sekuwa capital. Walk through Dharan's Bhanu Chowk area any evening after six and you'll see the smoke before you see the stalls — dozens of vendors fanning charcoal grills, turning skewers, slapping portions of sizzling meat onto plates of chiura (beaten rice) with sliced onions and green chilies on the side. The Dharan style uses a coarser spice mix and grills the meat slightly charred at the edges, still juicy inside.

Sekuwa is drinking food. It's what you order with your first beer of the evening — a plate of smoky, spicy, charred meat with a cold Gorkha or Everest lager. It's what friends share at a roadside table on plastic chairs. It's not fancy, it's not trying to be, and it's perfect.

The tradition has spread everywhere now. Kathmandu's Jhamsikhel and Durbarmarg areas have upscale sekuwa joints. Pokhara's Lakeside has tourist-friendly versions. But if you want the real thing — the one that's been done the same way for decades — you go to Dharan.