The Most Un-Vegetarian Meal...Ever

I was out to eat at a local Newari restaurant with one of my Nepali friends. It is a tiny hole in the wall place, some where you would not likely find in any Lonely Planet or other tourist guide book. He took the menu and ordered an assorment of things that I could not pronounce, although I tried, and failed miserably, resulting in hilarious laughter from the server. I decided I did not want to know what was being served until it was on a plate in front of me. So I waited in excited anticipation until 6 dishes of Newari food were placed in front of me. To start with we had chatamari, peanut sandeko, aloo kawad, and bara which seemed ordinary enough. Chatamari is sort of like a Nepali pizza, consisting of a base dough pancake, egg, vegetables, and meat. Peanut sandeko is a snack of spicey peanuts with chilis, onions, and tomatoes mixed in. Aloo kawad is potatoes in a spicey curry like gravy. Bara is a wheat pancake with vegetable inside. Then came the rest: fried buffalo tounge, fried buffalo brains, and sapumhicha. I of course know what tounge and brains are, but had no idea what sapumhicha was, and couldn't decipher it from the looks of it on the plate. It looked like some strange sea urchin or anemone or something. I decided to try it first before finding out what it was. You pick up a small pouch like thing, tied at one end with string, grab the end tied with string, and rip the pouch stuffed with... something, and chew it all. When I finally ripped the pouch a delicious squelch of oily yellowey stuff came gushing into my mouth. It turns out that sapumhicha is buffalo stomach lining stuffed with bone marrow and then fried. Interesting... but I must say, quite tasty! The tounge tasted like beef jerky and the brains were really sort and tender. But while I was eating slices of brain with a dainty little silver fork, I started to think about what the buffalo thought about during it's life, and I was sort of eating it's thoughts... Anyway, it was all a really tasty meal! One thing is for sure, the Newari's don't waste any part of an animal that they kill. It was probably the most un-vegetarian meal I have ever had.