I have often wondered how Kathmandu became a veritable paradise for eating in many languages. Even as far back as my primary school days Hungarian Goulash and Chicken a la Kiev were staples in the menus of most self-respecting hotels led by Hotel Royal. Then the explosion of the hippie movement of the mid-sixties onward brought a remarkable change in menu planning in Kathmandu's eateries. The East met West in an unabashed fusion of hashish toast and ganja coffee in Kathmandu's Freak Street. Thamel, the tourist hubbub of Kathmandu, was created when Freak Street lost the seekers of Nirvana who had, by the early seventies, morphed into the first adventure travelers exploring the high Himalayas. Thamel offered them high protein diet of sizzlers and steaks euphemistically called "fillet" so as not to offend Hindu sensibilities. Today we "Patanites" need not even cross the bridge to eat out: a potpourri of eateries abound in our own neighbourhood of "Jhamel...