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For choila, a plain-spoken Newari snack, chicken thigh is rubbed with ginger, garlic and chiles and brought close to burning over open flame, then left to rest until smoke has sought out every pore.

The food-obsessed Newari clan — the acknowledged gourmands of Nepal — is known for its elaborate celebratory foods. 

But at Laliguras, the Newari dish assumes a chewier, heartier consistency, the better to serve over white rice.

We listened to Newari pop music that to the uninitiated sounds like fast-food jingles with sitar, and headed toward the more difficult stretch of white water.

And a painting of two very-Chinese-looking arhats floating in a very-Chinese-looking landscape is inscribed in Tibetan on one side and Newari on the other, leaving its place of origin — Tibet, maybe? — up in the air.