Yomari

Yomari is a Nepali sweet made by wrapping a sweet filling in a rice-flour skin and steaming it. Its pointed shape is also likened to a fish or a teardrop. Yomari is part of the food culture of the Newar people of the Kathmandu Valley. When the new rice is harvested, families make yomari together to celebrate.

The skin and filling of a yomari broken open. 2009, Ritesh Man Tamrakar / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0. Downscaled version from the source; content not altered after retrieval.

Yomari photographed at the Hadigaun Food Festival in Kathmandu, Nepal. 2026, Nabin K. Sapkota / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Downscaled version from the source; content not altered after retrieval.

Two Kinds of Sweetness in a Rice Skin

Hot water is added to rice flour a little at a time, and the mixture is kneaded. One end is stretched thin in the hand. At the other end, a hole is made with the fingers and widened into a cup shape. The filling is placed inside, the opening is closed, and the yomari is steamed. The rice skin is sealed so the filling does not leak, and the sweet filling appears when the skin is broken open.

The typical fillings are chaku with sesame, or khuwa. Chaku is a sweet ingredient made by boiling down sugarcane sugar and pulling it. Adding sesame gives it a toasty flavor. Tokha, north of Kathmandu, is known for making chaku. Khuwa is made by boiling down milk, and some versions mix it with coconut. The skin is the same, but the two fillings taste different: the dark sugar has a deep sweetness, while the milk filling is mellow.

One method described in a Nepali cooking article warms chaku with water, mixes in black sesame seeds and ground black sesame, and lets the mixture cool before it is wrapped. Some khuwa fillings also include coconut or almonds. Yomari and the deep-fried sel roti are both made with rice, but they differ in both shape and cooking method.

Yomari arranged in a steamer. Nirjal stha / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. Downscaled version from the source; content not altered after retrieval.

Welcoming the New Rice and the Full Moon

Yomari Punhi is a festival held on the full moon during the new-rice season. People offer rice to Annapurna, the goddess of grain and food, to give thanks for the harvest. Families gather to make yomari, and some are shaped like deities. These are placed as offerings on the large baskets used to store grain. There is also a custom in which young people go around the neighborhood singing and asking for yomari, and each household gives them some.

Yomari is not eaten only at festivals. A custom is also reported in which, for a Newar child’s birthday, as many yomari as the child’s age are strung together to make a necklace. In Kathmandu, yomari is sold at stalls on festival days, and some shops also keep it on the menu all year. A Nepali restaurant in Tokyo once served yomari with black sesame paste alongside a savory alu tama made with fermented bamboo shoots.

Stories About Its Shape and Origins

The name is explained as meaning “favored food” in the Newar language. According to one legend, a couple in Panauti made it from new rice and sugar and shared it with their neighbors, who loved it. The story continues that they also shared it with Kubera, the god of wealth, who visited them in disguise, and that he gave them his blessing. This is a legend about the sweet’s beginnings, not a record that establishes who first created it.

There is also more than one interpretation of its shape. Some say it resembles a fish, a temple spire, or a citrus fruit. None of these can be identified as the origin of the shape. Still, they show that people have seen many different forms in this sweet, whose rice skin is shaped by hand.

Glossary