About Juju Dhau King Curd Specialists
Juju Dhau ('king curd' in Newari) is Bhaktapur's invented yogurt-dessert. A thick, creamy, slightly-sweet buffalo-milk yogurt fermented in small clay pots that give the dessert its distinctive flavour and texture. The dish exists nowhere else in Nepal in this exact form, and Bhaktapur's Pottery Square neighbourhood. Where the clay pots used for the fermentation are also produced. Holds the city's juju dhau specialists who make and sell the dessert daily.
The format is street-side dessert. The pottery-shop-and-juju-dhau-vendor combinations sit along the Pottery Square edge. About eight family kitchens that make their own juju dhau in the back of the pottery workshop, with small front-counters where visitors can buy a single clay pot ($1.50) for immediate eating or a take-away platter ($8 for ten pots). The dessert is eaten by hand with a small wooden spoon or by tipping the pot directly to the lips; the proper way is to add a small sprinkle of sugar or saffron-and-pistachio on top.
The most-recommended pottery-vendor is Madhav Lal Karmacharya. The family has been making juju dhau and clay pots in this same Pottery Square address since the 1950s, and the daily production sells out by 4pm most days. Other recommended vendors are Karmacharya Brothers (across the square) and Saru Lalitpur Juju Dhau (in the Pottery Square's south corner).
The format is the experience. Most visitors walk through Pottery Square, watch the clay-pot wheel-throwing in the workshops, and eat a single juju dhau at one of the front counters. The combination of the pottery-craft and the food-craft gives the experience cultural depth that a typical food-stop doesn't have. Walk-ins are the only way to use the format; cash is required.
Best Occasion Fit
Solo travellers. Five-minute snack stop, $1.50 bill, the city's signature single dessert. For team dinners as the dessert anchor of a longer Bhaktapur day, sharing a multi-pot platter across four diners gives the meal a built-in cultural moment. As a first date during a Pottery Square walking tour, sharing a small pot of juju dhau over a five-minute conversation is unfussy and intimate.
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