We’ve all heard the saying, “You are what you eat.” Looking around the globe today, I would argue that rarely has there been a truer statement. Our foods define us: as a people, a culture, and oftentimes, a nation. When we think Mexico tacos come to mind, for Japan it is sushi, and for Italy, pasta.


Certainly, the principal purpose of what goes into our bodies is fuel, but just as important is how it explains us as individuals. To put it more simply, “Who we are is how we eat.”


As societies have modernized, the human connection with food has become increasingly complex. For many, today’s approach to “cultivating crops” is walking down the aisle of a grocery store. So drastically has our eating culture changed that many children today don’t have any idea how their daily menu originates. Does chicken live in a shrink-wrapped package and do beans grow in a can? Each year I visit family in the United States, and am shocked to find the common staples fueling the rest of the world have all but disappeared from the American dinner table. My wife is a Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef and our relatives marvel at how she cooks everything from scratch. Not from a box, not from a package, but with raw products.


The deep association that Nepali people have with their cuisine goes way beyond that of simple sustenance. Ritual and a daily dedication to spirituality permeate this land, a marriage where food always features heavily. Here is a territory bou nd by the two great Asiatic civilizations, each contributing towards making Nepal unique. The country is blessed with some of the most stunning landscapes on earth, places that remind us how small we really are. Yet, masked by this overwhelming beauty is the harsh reality of mountain life.


Water that is just out of reach for irrigation. Changing weather patterns that are causing winters of drought. A farmer growing millet on a scratched-out piece of earth who hopes that he’ll produce enough to feed his family for maybe just half the year. The family living four days walk from the district headquarters that prays for rain, but is punished by floods that wash away their home. To live in this environment is to constantly have to deal with the caprices of Mother Nature. By building roads, irrigation systems, and improving agriculture, WFP hopes to empower people so they can take control of their lives. Is our work always perfect, do we have all the solutions? Certainly not, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. With over 1 billion people on the planet hungry, to do nothing is unacceptable.


To the crops they grow, the Nepalis award them the highest honor; they pass it to the Gods. In no other place on earth will you find food accorded such spirituality, and respect. This book is an attempt to celebrate the central role food plays in lives of those who inhabit this land. Napoleon Bonaparte famously claimed, “An army marches on its stomach.” If Napoleon had been in Nepal his soldiers would be dancing, singing, and chanting, all ritualizing in their reverence to food.


Ragan is the country director of UN-World Food Programme Nepal.

Courtesy:Ekantipur