Kathmandu:

Dhokaima has the finest carrot cake and some great food,” said Tapan Bose who uses the restaurant as his local watering hole.

“We called it Dhokaima because it’s almost in the Patan Dhoka,” said Kanak Mani Dixit, who along with Kunda and a sleeping partner, own the restaurant.

“The Dhokaima Café building dates back to the 1920’s when it was used as a store and outhouse to a Rana palace. The interior is designed by Siddhartha Gopalan to reflect the first two decades of the 20th century. The elements include the use of steel I-beams in both structure and motifs, light shades from the era, and rolled tin sheets in the bakery counter and light fixtures. The paintings of deities by Raja Ram Varma from Kerala are from the same period,” says the menu of Dhokaima, which is in handmade board and metal and is printed on a century old ‘treadle press’.

Bose, whose organisation believes in bringing South Asia closer together, is a globetrotter who loves food and is a gourmand who has eaten all over and was kind enough to help me with Dhokaima’s extraordinary menu.

There are two soups in Dhokaima that range from good to brilliant. Chef Buddha Lama makes an incredible hot and sour soup that has Sichuan spiced oil in it and is finished with egg flakes. You taste the sour and hot separately, and sometimes they mix in your mouth. But taste-blowing is the Chinese seaweed soup that has memorable tastes mixed, and not one is even slightly fishy.

Bose recalled a habit in France. It was a lamb with liquorice and clovers which he claimed was as great in its own way as Dhokaima’s Chicken Fricassee, which is cubes of boneless chicken cooked in red wine with mushrooms and shallots. Chef Ram Kazmakes the Fricassee uniquely Dhokaima by adding bacon that accents the wine and becomes one with the chicken.

Really fabulous but simple is the Spaghetti Sauce which has fried garlic and parsley swirled in slightly warm olive oil and poured over the pasta. Bose recommended Chef Buddha’s special diced chicken cooked with red chillies and peanuts in a slight gravy. The crispy fried chicken was chicken covered with spices and instantly cooked in burning fat. The result was a coating of various spices that had you guessing even as you made mental notes to congratulate Chef Buddha and his Chinese mentor.

Bose ordered the exotic fried cucumber with dried chilli in a touch of spicy sauce, and the brilliant, unforgettable and quite unusual, French beans cooked with Sesame Seeds. Two things happened in the cooking the beans — first they tasted of Sesame and second you had pickle or achar like clusters of Sesame that was as out of the world.

Dhokaima has a hot sauce for its vegetable and chicken momos which a regular customer said should be accompanied by a sweetish Thai sauce. Dhokaima is the only restaurant I know that does a local Mashyaura Chilli, which is reconstituted soya beans in a sweet chilli sauce. The manager of the restaurant Gopal Nepal (who has left, Ajay Pradhanang is the assistant manager now) said it was a family recipe and I demanded to be adopted at once.

As someone said, like all great treasures, once discovered, Dhokaima has you coming back for a little bit more all the time. Like Tapan Bose. And now me.

For all things Dhokaima, call 5522113/ 5553767.