With meat consumption spiking up, restaurateurs are honing their cooking skills to meet the demand. Of late, sekuwa is among the foods which most favor.

Sekuwa is skewered meat that is marinated in a variety of spices. It is either grill cooked or roasted over firewood.

The meat options are varied as one can opt for goat, pork, buffalo, chicken, or lamb meat sekuwas. If you are a novice or a hardcore foodie exploring places to try sekuwa, you are in luck, as this feature piece lists out some of the best Kathmandu restaurants to try the dish at.

Also Read: Nepali Food – Cuisine That Reflects Culture

1) Yangtaru Sekuwa Corner

The foodie in you may have noticed that this restaurant has sekuwa as its middle name. Located in Saraswatinagar, Chabahil, Yangataru Sekuwa Corner is a spacious restaurant where one can hang out at.

One can down sekuwa while comfortably seated in the outdoor or indoor space of the restaurant. Although Yangtaru offers various sekuwas, their buffalo sekuwa has captured the attention of the foodies.

2) Town Top Lama Sekuwa Corner

Located in Sinamangal Chok, Town Top Lama Sekuwa Corner is an eatery where one can relish sekuwa contentedly. Managed by the local Lama family, the meat skewers are cooked traditionally.

What is more appealing is that the restaurant has priced the sekuwas reasonably. Available in pork, chicken, and buffalo options, one can savor the meat dish with golphuki and pickle on the side.

Also Read: Baji, the beaten rice that is ingrained in Nepali Newa Culture

3) Michael Grills

Sekuwa grilling is a meticulous art. One has to play around with the temperature to grill them to perfection, or the meat would get burnt. Michael Baje made his mark when it comes to grilling sekuwas. Inspired by him, Michael Grills pays respects to the artist and serves sekuwa.

Located in Devkota Sadak, Kathmandu, the restaurant serves excellent sekuwa varieties at affordable pricing. One can grub on the sekuwas with beaten rice and down it with the special sauce.

4) Fast Food Newari Khaja Ghar

Meat without spice is a rare thing in Asia, for most prefer it spicy. Fast Food Newari Khaja Ghar has harnessed that factor by doling out some of the spiciest versions of sekuwa. From Keema anda to Newari Khaja, the restaurant is famous for various dishes.

However, the one which foodies love the most here is the special piro sekuwa. The spicy sekuwa is perceived by locals as one of the spiciest and succulent sekuwas one can find in the entire national capital.

Also Read: How Agriculture and Animal Husbandry are Reshaping Nepali Economy

5) Bajeko Sekuwa

Bajeko Sekuwa is quite popular in Kathmandu. For four decades, the restaurant has made its mark with its sekuwa and other dishes. However, it is sekuwa servings that boosted Bajeko’s reputation. As it is prepared with traditional spices, the sekuwa dish is in high demand here.

One can down the sekuwas in the hygienic ambiance of the restaurant. Owing to its popularity, the restaurant has expanded to ten locations. Now, one can enjoy the skewered meat from the location closest to them.

Also Read: 10 Reasons Why Nepalese Love To Buy iPhone

6) Dharane Sekuwa Corner

Dharane serves plenty of delicious foods. But, it is famous for its Sekuwa dishes, which are available in pork, chicken, buffalo, and mutton. Located in Sampang Chok, Lalitpur, Dharane Sekuwa Corner offers regular skewers and wing sekuwas. The homely and peaceful ambiance has attracted many customers to the eatery.

7) Koits Sekuwa Corner

Koits Sekuwa Corner is situated in Phaika Chok, Kapan and is run by Sunuwar family members. Although the other places serve sekuwas, Koits Sekuwa Corner is unique as it preps sekuwas over oven fire. The oven charring makes the buffalo and chicken skewers much more succulent than the regular ones.

Also Read: How Agriculture and Animal Husbandry are Reshaping Nepali Economy

Capping it off

As one can observe, heading to Nepal doesn’t always have to be mountains and rafting. One can embark on a gastronomic journey and unleash the foodie in you. So, whenever you are in the Himalayan nation next, don’t forget to down the sekuwas to your heart’s content.

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Before this decision, the Nepali government operated eight hotels to quarantine the travelers flying to the country as the Nepal-India air bubble arrangement is active. Now, Nepal has added 70 more hotels to this list and has brought the total to 78 hotels.

The 78 hotels have willingly agreed to participate in this quarantine program. As per the norms, the air passengers will be in this hotel isolation for a minimum of 10 days. The air passengers will be allowed to board the flights to Nepal only if they display their hotel booking for the stipulated time.

While presenting the budget for 2021/22, Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel announced that the selected hotels, which will become isolation centers, will receive incentives. As per the Director-General of DoT Rudra Singh Tamang, the 78 hotels should be in the areas mentioned in the criteria for Nepali and foreign international air travelers. This decision comes after Nepal allowed international flights from June 1.

Air India, Qatar Airways, and Turkish Airlines can fly one flight every week, while Nepal Airlines operates two flights per week. Considering that foreigners from international destinations will visit Nepal in increasing numbers, Nepal decided to enforce this countermeasure to combat the pandemic.

The hotels participating in this program are:

Eight hotels, Ananda Ashram, Airport Hotel, Amadablam Hotel, A One Resort, Farm House Resort, Mahadev Hotel, Readers Inn, and View Bhrikuti are already participating in this program. Now, the government has brought on another 70 hotels.

Of the new 70 hotels, a total of seven 5-star luxury hotels have agreed to pitch in their resources. Shangri-La Hotel, Radisson Hotel, Hotel Yak & Yeti, Hyatt Regency The Soaltee, Hotel Aloft, and Hotel Everest are the luxury quarantining destinations for the Nepali and foreign jet setters who enter Nepal.

Apart from these, there are 51 standard tourist hotels in the vicinity of the airport. A range of hotels will become quarantining spaces in Gaushala, Battisputali, Bag Bazar, Lainchaur, and Dhulikhel areas. Park Village and Gokarna Forest Resort are among the new hospitality destinations quarantine spaces.

Cost for quarantine stay

Nepal has issued a mandate saying, “Any hotel not adhering to the Hotel Quarantine rules shall be penalized as per the Infectious Disease Act 2020.” The non-star hotels would charge NPR 3,000 per head. Under this tariff, all three meals are covered.

The star hotels are exempted from this policy. They are allowed to bill the staying jet setters as per their hotel policy.

Criteria for this hotel quarantine selection

Nepal has stipulated that the hotels with a minimum of 20 rooms and a compound to lounge about qualify for this quarantine program. The hotel destinations should be stocked up on food, water, and logistics to provide a hassle-free stay for jet setters. Most importantly, they ought to have space where the COVID-19 swab tests can be conducted.

The lodging should have ample bed & bath facilities. Additionally, they should be equipped with a television and Wi-Fi options. “Food and other services should be provided in the passage or occupied rooms,” according to the criteria set by the Department of Tourism.

As is the global norm, hotels should have sanitizers and toiletries for sanitizing purposes. However, the fitness and dining facilities such as buffet dining and gyms should be closed until further notice.

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Recorded at a decline by 2.19 points, the average turnaround stood at Rs 211.25 million during July 22-28, 2018 compared to Rs 291.02 million in the previous week.

On Sunday, the market that opened on a hopeful note of 1193.39 points, slumped lower to close at 1,181.66 points. However, on Monday and Tuesday the market index witnessed a high, resulting in an increase by 12.84 and 4.77 points on both days. Going forward, in the middle of the week the stock market saw a downward curve when the market index fell by 4.92 points and 3.15 points, respectively.

As a result, the stock exchange market slumped to close at 0.18 percent in the overall trading days.

Stockholders observed that the high interest rates charged by Nepal banks led to a decline in the stock exchange numbers. Investors were demotivated by the bank’s high interest rates.

“Investors complained that they were still compelled to pay as high as 15 percent interest rate despite the banks’ assurance to lower the rate following an ease in liquidity position with them in recent days,” revealed a stockbroker.

Performance Across Various Sectors:
According to sensitive index, Group A companies performed relatively low and showed a marginal decrease by 0.46 points to close at 250.96 points. The majority blue chip companies including commercial banks also witnessed a fall in their share process.

Out of 11 trading groups, five reported losses during July 22-28, 2018. Microfinance faced the bigger brunt, losing 20.11 points and totaling up to 1541.5 points. Manufacturing followed next, reporting a loss of 9.31 points.

Hydro-power, development banks and commercial banks also reported losses, recorded at 2.43, 0.95 and 0.06 points respectively.

Talking about the winners, hotels climbed higher by 38.54 points, followed by trading by 0.42 points, and finance companies by 0.33 points.

Recently, the Nepal Stock Exchange separated life from non-life categories in the insurance group, both of which reported a closing total of 5,942.18 points and 5,904.76 points.

In the banking sector alone, Nabil Bank Limited was leading in terms of transaction amount. The company earned a turnover on shares worth Rs 53.03 million. Nepal Investment Bank stood second after displaying a turnover of Rs 38.88 million. This was followed by Nepal Credit and Commerce Bank, Nepal Bank Limited and Samina Bank.

Mega Bank Nepal witnessed the largest transaction volume in terms of number of shares with a total of 137,000 its shares traded during the review period.

During the last week, stock of 179 listed companies were traded. With the fall in market index, the transaction amount also observed a fall by 27.41 percent to close at Rs. 1.05 billion. The traded number of shares also declined to 3,945,760 units from a previous statistic of Rs 4,754, 520 units.

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This a good omen for Oli-led Nepal Government that envisages an 8 percent economic growth rate for the coming Fiscal Year 2018-19 (beginning mid-July). Also, this comes as a much-required push for Nepal whose three-trillion economy is very much dependent on the agricultural sector’s 27.6 percent contribution. To meet the expected rate, the government is targeting a current growth rate of 4.5 percent.

What Economists Have to Say?

Economists say, a good monsoon-start tremendously benefits farm output. This is because 55 percent of Nepal’s 3.09 million hectare is arable and is highly dependent on rainfall. It can be also key in arresting inflation, which is currently worrying the Nepal Government and threatening the country at large.

Further, bumper harvest tackles inflation in a way that it creates avenue for supply.

The government should smartly allocate minimum support prices on farm products in case farmers don’t earn enough on surplus supply, say experts.

Economist Keshav Acharya says, “Overall, if the agricultural sector performs well and the local and provincial governments spend their allocated capital, the 8 percent economic growth target is attainable.”

“This year, despite poor capital spending, regular supply of electricity and good industrial relation, helped the country to achieve 6 percent of growth,” he adds.

Agriculture – A Key Influencer
According to Acharya, the agricultural sector growth or productivity is a highly-influencing factor.

For example, if the agricultural production increases, it will automatically lead to productivity in the non-agricultural sectors such as industries, tourism, education, hotels, hospitals and retail.

“The increase in agriculture production means farmers’ income will also increase and they will spend more,” says Acharya.

Following which he added that a small growth in agricultural sector can create a ripple effect on other sectors.

Cloudy Sky for Nepal

As per the statement of the 12th session of the South Asian Climate Outlook Forum (SASCOF) released on April 20, 2018, ”Nepal is expected to witness a ‘normal’ monsoon this year.”

“There is a very slim chance of a deficient monsoon this year and based on the forecast, we can expect Nepal’s agriculture sector to get a big boost,” says Rishi Ram Sharma, Director General, Hydrology and Meteorology Department.

Speaking further he adds, “Monsoon has entered Nepal from the eastern part of the country. It is expected to cover the entire country within few days. This is the first time in last 10 years that monsoon has arrived two days before of its schedule.”

Paddy Crop Boost in FY 2016-17
In the last fiscal year, Nepal’s paddy harvest saw an all-time high of 5.23 million tons after the country received above-normal monsoon. The paddy production last year accelerated the agricultural sector’s growth rate by 5.43 percent leading to a higher economic growth rate of 6.9 percent in the past 23 years.

Chitwan Faces Crisis – Traditional Rice Varieties Vanish

Meanwhile, Chitwan District in Province 3 of Nepal is facing crisis over the wipe out of almost 321 varieties of rice except the ‘Anadi’. The district that boasted of a wide variety of rice until three decades ago is now having to depend on hybrid varieties.

According to the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC), the increasing usage of hybrid and Genetically-Modified (GM) rice varieties has beaten the usage of traditional varieties. And, the former scenario is increasingly visible in the Tarai region to hilly areas.

Currently, NARC is conducting research and studying new methods of developing high-yielding varieties of the rice crop that are resistant to climate change and diseases through the usage of traditional variety seeds.

IFAD and Nepal sign MoU Over Food Security
Recently, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Nepal have come to an understanding to significantly boost incomes and food and nutrition security for 35,000 rural farming households in 10 districts of State 6.

The MoU was signed by Gilbert F Houngbo, President of IFAD and Sreekrishna Nepal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Nepal.

With a duration of six years and a budget of USD 68.1 million; inclusive of a USD 38.3 million loan and a USD 1.8 million grant, this initiative will be co-funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SADC) and the Government of Nepal with a funding of USD 3 million and USD 11.5 million, respectively.

The program will be started in Dailekh, Humla, Jumla, Mugu, Dolpa, Jajarkot, Kalikot, Salyan, Rukum and Surket districts of State 6.

“The scheme will target smallholder producers and landless rural people interested in engaging in targeted value chain activities,” says Lakshmi Moola, IFAD Country Program Manager.

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