In Nepal, chiya pauroti and chiya chiura are common snacks. But going above and beyond that, we like dunk all kinds of things in tea that come in our way - and I am sure this has confectioners turning in their graves.

Chocolate cake? Oh yes. Doughnuts? Muffins? Cupcakes? Croissants? Burger buns? Puffs? Cookies? Julie biscuits? Strudel? Pie? Rice Crispy? I have dunked all of them in tea, and found that tea improves the taste of every one of them, no matter how exquisitely crafted the cake is. I have even been known to dunk salty crackers like monaco and soaltee in tea.

The way I see it, dunking things in tea is not limited to me. It is a national epidemic. I have heard people say that tea is not tea without dunking something in it. I have seen people fish out broken bits of biscuits from their tea and still eat it. And if the biscuit breaks while dunking, it doesn't stop people. Instead, they dunk and break more and more biscuits until half the cup is full of a mud colored sludge, at which point they eat it with a spoon.

For this uniquely Nepali habit, (which I have carried over to the US by dunking subway bread in tea), we have a uniquely Nepali saying too: napaune le chocolate cake pai, chiya ma chobera khai. (I know the original says something else, but perhaps it is time to change it). Perhaps that is enough said on dunking. I need to get back to my tea so that I can fish out my biscuit bits before they turn into mud colored sludge! Sayonara and happy dunking!

Sketch by Sewa

Sewa recently won the "nerdiest" competition by claiming that her favorite Saturday night hobby is reading, and she would like to know what pure math is all about. Though she is working at becoming the jack of all nerdiness, she mainly likes to write about the issues of Nepali students abroad, the issues of Nepali women everywhere, and frequently goes off on tangents of myths and fables.

http://www.parakhi.com/blogs/2012/04/07/on-dunking