Traditional Foods and Beverages of Nepal—A Review

Abstract

The various ethnic groups of Nepal consume a variety of traditional fermented and nonfermented foods. The major fermented traditional foods and beverages include

Development of the microbial community during spontaneous cauliflower fermentation

“…campestris), mustard leaves (Brassica juncea L.), cauliflower leaves (Brassica oleracea L.) and cabbages (Brassica sp.) and the latter by cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) (Dahal, Karki, Swamylingappa, Li, & Gu, 2005;Tamang et al, 2005) belong to the above mentioned products. Moreover, the type of LAB succession that has been reported in this study has also being described during production of other spontaneously fermented vegetables.…”

The microbiology of alkaline-fermentation of indigenous seeds used as food condiments in Africa and Asia

“…Other organisms found were lactobacilli and pediococci. In Nigerian dawadawa, Odunfa (1981) and Ogbadu and Okagbue (1988) have reported (Dahal et al 2005;Kiers et al 2000;Sarkar and Tamang 1995;Sarkar et al 2002;Sarkar et al 1994;Sarkar et al 1997a;Sarkar et al 1997b) Thua-nao Thailand B. subtilis, Bacillus spp., Lactic acid bacteria (Chantawannakul et al 2002;Inatsu et al 2006;Leejeerajumnean et al 2001;Visessanguan et al 2005 Ndir et al (1994) and Ndir et al (1997) isolated Bacillus species as the dominant microorganisms and also isolated Staphylococcus spp., Micrococcus spp., Clostridia spp., and Streptococci spp. which they reported as potential spoilage organisms.…”

“…Kinema is produced by the traditional alkaline fermentation of soybeans (Glycine max L) by the people of the eastern Himalayan regions of the Darjeeling hills and Sikkim in India, Nepal and Bhutan who use it in local dishes as a seasoning agent and as a low-cost source of protein (Dahal, et al 2005;Sarkar et al 1997b;Tamang and Nikkuni 1996). Kinema has a pH between 7.9 and 8.5 and is produced by cleaning of soybean grains, washing, soaking overnight (12-20 h), boiling till soft (90 min) and crushing lightly into grits.…”

“…Fresh kinema can be kept for 2 to 3 days during summer and up to 1 week during winter. For food preparation, fresh kinema is fried in oil with other ingredients and eaten with rice and vegetables (Dahal et al 2005).…”

Fate of Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella Typhimurium during spontaneous cauliflower fermentation

“…Indeed, irrespective the inoculum level and the type of the pathogen used, lactic acid population reached stationary phase after 5 days of fermentation revealing their large antagonistic capacity and on the other hand, exhibiting the inability of the selected pathogens to compete. Moreover, dominance of vegetable fermentations by L. plantarum is very often (Dahal, Karki, Swamylingappa, Li, & Gu, 2005;Maifreni, Marino, & Conte, 2004;Tamang et al, 2005) and can be assigned to the flexibility and the large metabolic capacity to rapidly adapt to changing environmental conditions that characterizes the species (Klaenhammer, Barrangou, Buck, Azcarate-Peril, & Altermann, 2005).…”