Newari Specialties
Samay Baji
समय् बजि
Samay Baji is the ceremonial platter at the heart of Newar food culture — a ring of small, deliberately contrasting items arranged around a mound of beaten rice. Every component carries meaning, and the set appears at Mha Puja, Indra Jatra, weddings, feasts and ancestor rituals rather than at ordinary meals. Nothing is served hot: it is assembled at room temperature and eaten with the fingers, one combination at a time, usually with a small measure of aila, the home-distilled Newar spirit.
- Prep
- 60 min
- Cook
- 50 min
- Total
- 1 h 50 min
- Serves
- 4
- Difficulty
- Medium
At the stove
Method
Prepare the components ahead: roast the soybeans until they rattle and darken, boil and dress the potatoes, wilt the greens, boil the beans, and fry the bara and eggs.
Grill or char the marinated buffalo for the choila and toss it with mustard oil, chilli powder, timur and fresh garlic while still warm, then let it cool.
Warm the beaten rice briefly in a dry pan to freshen it, or leave it as it is if it is already crisp. Do not soak it.
Choose a wide, shallow plate — traditionally a leaf plate or a bronze thali — and heap the beaten rice slightly off-centre as the anchor of the platter.
Arrange the remaining items in a ring around the rice, alternating textures and colours: bara next to choila, soybeans next to potato, greens next to beans.
Set the egg at the outer edge and tuck the ginger matchsticks, whole garlic cloves, roasted chilli and achar into the gaps.
Serve everything at room temperature. Give each diner their own plate rather than sharing from a central dish.
Eat by pinching up a little beaten rice with one accompaniment at a time, chasing the fatty items with ginger or garlic to reset the palate, and pour the aila alongside if you are serving it.
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