Courtesy: The Rana Cookbook: Recipes from the Palaces of Nepal, by Rohini Rana, Penguin Viking.
The Ranas ruled Nepal for just over a century, as Prime Ministers, and are famous to date for their stucco, colonial style palaces, beautifully manicured gardens, magnificent jewelry, palace intrigues and autocratic rule. This glamorous, colorful regime that shaped the history of the country for 104 years, imported ideas concerning architecture, dress and even administration from far off Europe but in the field of culinary art they did not stray too far from their homeland. The local cuisine was influenced to a certain extent by the