Newari Feast Staple · Smoky Grilled Buffalo

Chhoyla

Photo: Gary Stevens / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0

Two rival cooking styles split the dish before the spice rack even comes out — one version is charred straight over a straw fire, the other boiled first and only seared afterward.

Chhoyla is meat — classically buffalo, now often chicken, mutton or duck — rubbed with mustard oil, garlic, chili and spice, then either charred over an open straw fire or boiled and quickly seared. It's piled onto beaten rice with a heavy dusting of ground spice, sold at Newari bhattis and street meat counters across the Kathmandu Valley's old towns.

Why it's made this way: Chhoyla is considered central enough to Newar identity that it is one of the required components of Samay Baji, the community's ceremonial festival platter — many say it's the dish people show up for.