Kathmandu:

When Nabin Tuladhar and his partners closed The Liquid Lounge and opened The Bourbon Room, opposite The Palace and next to Jai Nepal, they made a move that will eventually make them very popular.

As it is The Bourbon Room, a Restro-Bar, is one of the most delightfully elastic rooms in the Valley. When we went there was dancing going on in one part of the Restro-Bar, a few

people drinking in another part, some chatting in yet another corner. The atmosphere was relaxed.

The menus at The Bourbon Room are psychedelic and looking is ordering. The snacks menu covers the globe from Mexico and the United States to Nepal.

Said Tuladhar, “I was tending bar in Australia and I got fed up of working for someone else, so here I am.” His knowledge of drinks is encyclopedic and his cocktails come in rainbow colours.

My favourite snack, which I savoured, was invented especially by the chef of The Bourbon Room and it had tortilla pieces with a salsa roja, the red Mexican sauce made with tomatoes, chili peppers, onions, garlic and cilantro covering it and there was melted cheese on top.

It was almost a piece of the nachos which were created by Ignacio Anaya in 1943 in a small Mexican Town where some hungry Texan ladies had gone shopping.

A friend eating beside me said I must try the pizza. He was an American and a foodie. I had a nibble and it turned into a mouthful or pizzo which is the Old High German word from which pizza is derived.

Bourbon had provided three types of pizza, I went for the one with the bacon on top and it would have pleased the Persian King Darius (521-486 BC) who baked a kind of bread on his shield and covered it with cheese and dates. Then in the 1st century BC, the poet Virgil said, “See, we devour the plates on which we fed” because the toppings were cheese and tomatoes and bits of meat which were eaten before the so called “plate”.

The pasta dish was fiery and combined Italian pleasures with our own Eastern delights. You sip something soothing and then when you went back for more.

My favourite was the Szechuan cuisine which I overdosed on. There was Szechuan noodle which is favourite of mine. It also goes under the name of Dan Dan noodles and is a classic dish of Chinese Sichuan cuisine and it consists at the very least of spicy sauce made of Sichuan peppers and chili oil and onions.

Helping you was slightly less spicy Chinese Chicken from Sichuan again but it was tempered by a touch of Cantonese influences.

Spectacular was the Chicken Manchurian which was classically done using soya sauce, corn flour, eggs, garlic paste and a sauce that had ginger, garlic, chili, chicken stock and onions. It is said that the Manchu Kings loved this dish and would have it for any meal or even snacks. At The Bourbon Room the Chicken Manchurian is a finishing touch that asks for a whole round food again!

While we ate, a music system compliments of the management was suddenly set up, and two friendly DJs went into a frenzy of songs and Bourbon rocked as I am sure it will do for many years to come and the food, good as it is, will draw me back to sample the rest of the menu. Call 4441703.