Hello Chou Chou! Goodbye Dal-Bhat?

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High on a pass, a day´s walk east of Bhojpur in Nepal, porter Krishna Bahadur Limbu slurps up a bowl of noodles before heaving his doko of grain and heading up the hill, towards market. In Kathmandu, housewife Meera Sharma prepares packaged noodle soup for her three school-going children. "The kids love it and it needs less fuel," she says.

Throughout the hills, pre-cooked noodles in brightly coloured packs, bottled soft drinks and factory made biscuits are bringing sweeping changes in the eating habits of the Himalayans. Taking cue from attractively-packaged and slickly-marketed instant foods in neighbouring India, Nepali manufacturers of noodles are targeting middle class urbanites and rural consumers. Sizzling commercials on Nepal TV depict junk food enthusiasts nibbling noodles, as today´s culinary role models.

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Himal Southasian
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