Dashain and Tihar Food in Pokhara: What to Expect

Dashain and Tihar together make up the biggest festival stretch of the year in Nepal, and food sits right at the center of both. In Pokhara, that means weeks where kitchens are busier than usual, families gather around bigger meals than normal, and certain dishes show up on nearly every table.

Khasi ko masu, the dish of Dashain

Khasi ko masu, goat curry cooked slow with turmeric, cumin, and garam masala, is the dish most associated with Dashain. Families across Nepal, including in Pokhara, look forward to a rich goat curry during the festival, and it is the kind of dish that takes real time to cook properly, which is part of why it feels special rather than ordinary.

Sel roti, present through both festivals

Sel roti, a ring-shaped, deep-fried sweet bread made from rice flour, shows up heavily during both Dashain and Tihar. It has a slightly crisp outside and a soft, faintly sweet inside, and it is common to see it made in batches during the festival season, since it keeps well and gets shared around between family and neighbors.

Tihar and the same sweet bread

Tihar follows shortly after Dashain, and sel roti carries through into this festival too, showing up alongside the gatherings that mark the days of Tihar. It is less about being tied to one specific meal and more about being present throughout the whole festival stretch, made in batches and kept on hand for whoever passes through the house.

Why the festival season gets busy for food

Dashain and Tihar are as much about family gathering as they are about any single dish. Households cook more than usual, guests come and go over several days, and a lot of the cooking happens at home rather than in restaurants. That said, the household kitchen is not always able to keep up with a full house of visitors for days on end.

Ordering in during a busy festival stretch

This is exactly the kind of stretch where ordering in makes sense, even in a season built around home cooking. If a household has guests arriving through the day, or the cook of the house needs a break between one feast and the next, bringing in a khasi ko masu style dish or a few plates of momo takes pressure off without skipping the point of the festival. It also helps on the days between the biggest meals, when nobody wants to cook a full spread but everyone is still hungry.

Around the festival, not just on the day

Not every day of Dashain or Tihar calls for a full feast. Between the bigger meals, lighter khaja plates or a simple order of momo cover the gap without much effort. For the food traditions specific to Teej, a different festival with its own feast the night before a day of fasting, see the Teej food guide. And if you are feeding a full house of relatives during the festival, the group food ordering guide is worth a look too.

Dashain and Tihar come once a year, and the food is a real part of why people look forward to them. Whether it is cooked at home or ordered in for a night, khasi ko masu and sel roti are what the season tastes like in Pokhara.