Kathmandu:

You walk from a road choked with traffic, with tuk-tuks trying to overtake big buses, and micros too arrogant to let another vehicle go ahead, with the sound of horns of cars, bicycles, motorcycles pumping into your ears... into a peaceful garden.

You sink into a chair and bask in the winter sun as you wait for the hot steam boat or gyakok to warm your bones and soothe your frayed soul.

Sounds blissful and out of this world, doesn’t it?

Blissful it is; out of this world it isn’t — because this combination of delicious, nutritious food in an ambience that will only add to one’s eating-out experience is on offer at the Shambala Garden Café, Shangri-la Hotel, Lazimpat.

The hotel has started its Gyakok (Tibetan hotpot/steam boat) festival from January 12, which will go on for a month.

You’ve probably seen gyakok on television programmes on exotic dining experiences. Here’s your chance to actually try one. And once you’ve tried the Shangri-la gyakok, it is guaranteed you will be looking for excuses to visit the restaurant again and again.

Gyakok gets its name from a special utensil that is utilised. The specialty of this hotpot (as the name suggests) is that the food keeps on cooking as one keeps feasting.

The Shangri-la gyakok is described as a “hot pot with a variety of meats like chicken fillet, pork, fish, rice noodles and vegetables served with accompaniments of steamed rice and fried rice, vegetable noodles, momos, T-momos, Bokchoy with sesame, sauteed mushrooms, shredded pork, diced chicken cashewnuts and cucumber salad”.

The gyakok is a meal in itself for at least two people. Served steaming hot from the pot, you bite into tender pieces of chicken, delectable prawns, meat balls, tofu that is steeped with the goodness of the soup, and the thin-thin rice noodles. You can have rice or momos or other accompaniments with the gyakok, which costs Rs 450 per person.

So, if you want to try something different that is delicious as well as nutritious, and want to do it as a family or with a group of friends, then this is definitely the table for you. Open for lunch (12 noon to 3:00 pm) and dinner (7:00-10:00 pm), you are advised to call two hours in advance for your steam boat (4412999 or 4419742).