This is one of those silly things people don't think about normally , but it turns out somethings have more value than other was perceived when there is a lack of them. This is about Gundruk obviously. A month ago I hadn't cooked gundruk at all and now I am an old pro, having done it more than five times in all the various ways. Like yesterday, for example, somebody who was going to come didn't do spicy food, so I cooked the dried fermented leaves( mixed with sink/without the chilies, warmed burned actually) the green chillies in hot oil elsewhere, and mixed them. The sound and feel of dropping tempered spices into a stew is such that I could see why people would prefer to do it for the ritualistic aspect of it and not for any functional reasons. It makes you feel like such an adult doing cool interesting things in the kitchen.
Probably why they almost always temper Simba instead of frying in the same pot at the start.
Right, back to the gundruk talk. So it turns out gun drink and rice is not party food, not respectable meal, it's something you make when you don't feel like cooking anything else, or because your 'e poor. Here in Seattle though the talk of making hot white rice with warm and spicy gundruk is what makes people want to get invited to dinner to your place. And people seem to really really enjoy it too! Plus, besides the hellish cutting part at the start and I'm sure there's easier ways to deal with it) it's actually quite a simple dish. Much simpler than dal even. The cool part is you dont need to think about the spices to put in besides salt oil& chillies-it comes pre-spiced! It is of course an acquired taste but one all of us Nepalis have acquired, and that is what gives it so much value-the shared experience.
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