Dashain in Australia: the goat, the tika and where to eat it
Dashain runs from Sunday 11 October to Sunday 25 October in 2026, and tika falls on a Wednesday. What we cook for it, why the goat is the whole point, and the kitchens doing khasi ko masu in every state if you are not cooking this year.
The first sign of Dashain in our house was never the tika. It was my father coming back from the butcher with more meat than the fridge could take, and my mother clearing the bottom shelf two days early because she knew exactly what was coming.
Dashain is the biggest festival Nepal has, fifteen days of it, and it runs on goat, rice and whoever you can get in one room. Here is when it falls in 2026, what actually goes on the plate, and where to eat it in Australia if this is not the year you cook.
When Dashain falls in 2026
Dashain starts on Sunday 11 October 2026 with Ghatasthapana, when the jamara is sown, and finishes on Sunday 25 October at Kojagrat Purnima. The days people mark in between:
- Ghatasthapana, Sunday 11 October: barley seeds sown in soil, kept dark, watered daily for the jamara.
- Phulpati, Saturday 17 October: the flowers and leaves come in, and the cooking starts in earnest.
- Maha Ashtami, Sunday 18 October: the big meat day in most homes.
- Bijaya Dashami, Wednesday 21 October: tika and jamara from your elders. This is the day people mean when they say Dashain.
- Kojagrat Purnima, Sunday 25 October: the full moon that closes it out.
Tika lands on a Wednesday this year, which in Australia means the feast will not. Nearly every family I know will do the real thing on the weekend either side, Sunday 18 or Saturday 24 October, and keep Wednesday for the tika itself after work. If you are ringing a restaurant or a caterer, those two weekends are the ones that book out.
One more piece of timing. Kathmandu runs five and a quarter hours behind Sydney in October, so if you are taking tika over video call from your parents at home, their auspicious hour lands in your early evening. Plan dinner around it, not the other way round.
What is actually on the plate
Dashain food is not subtle and it is not meant to be. The centre of it is khasi ko masu, goat curry, cooked on the bone in mustard oil with ginger, garlic, turmeric, cumin and a lot of onion, simmered until the meat gives up and the gravy goes dark and sticky from the bones. Eaten over rice with your hands, with a spoonful of aloo ko achar on the side to cut through it.
Around it, depending on whose house you are in: sel roti, the crisp-edged sweet rice ring, fried in coils and torn apart while still warm. Kheer, thick with cardamom, made in a pot big enough to feed the street. Sekuwa off the grill for the people standing around drinking. In Newar homes like the one I grew up in, add bara, choila and a full samay baji spread, because a Newar family will find a reason to lay out samay baji for anything.
The rhythm matters more than any single dish. Dashain is the fortnight when meat is on the table every single day, in a food culture where the rest of the year it mostly is not. That is the whole feeling of it.
The goat is the whole point
At home, families pool money and buy a whole animal between them, then divide it. That is why Dashain cooking looks the way it does: you have every part of the goat at once, so you cook every part of the goat. The offal goes first, because it will not keep. Khasi ko bhutan, the stomach, intestine and liver boiled then pan-fried hard with spices, is the drinking snack of the fortnight. Khutti, the leg, goes into a soup. Even the tongue turns up on a plate.
In Australia the pooling still happens, it just runs through a halal butcher and a group chat instead of the neighbours. People order weeks ahead, split a goat four or five ways, and lose a freezer to it until November. If you are trying to buy goat in the week of Dashain itself, you are already late.
Worth knowing when you read a menu here: khasi ko masu and khasi ko bhutan are not the same order. Masu is the curry. Bhutan is the offal fry, and it is properly good, but it is not what you want if you came for a plate of goat curry and rice. A few kitchens go further down the animal. Kutumba Lounge in Unley runs a khasi ko khutti soup, the goat-leg one, and Sukuti Ghar in Granville will sell you a khasi ko jibro set, which is tongue. Order it. You can thank me after.
Sel roti, kheer and the sweet end
Sel roti is the thing people outside the family notice first, because it looks like a doughnut and tastes like nothing they were expecting: crisp right at the edge, chewy in the middle, faintly sweet, faintly sour from the rice batter resting overnight. It belongs to both Dashain and Tihar, and it is the one Dashain food that is genuinely hard to buy here. Only a handful of kitchens fry it, most of them takeaway counters rather than restaurants, and six of the ones we know about are in Perth.
Kheer closes the meal, and in a lot of homes so does a plate of whatever sweets came in the door with the last set of visitors. Nobody is precise about this part. By day four you are eating meat, rice and sweets in an order decided entirely by who has just arrived.
How Dashain works when you live here
The jamara is the bit people improvise hardest. Barley seed in an ice cream container on a sunny windowsill, covered with a tea towel, watered every day and hidden from the light so it comes up that pale yellow-green. It works. I have taken tika from jamara grown next to a Sydney laundry sink and it counted just the same.
Tika comes from your elders, so if your parents are still in Nepal you go to whoever is oldest in your circle here, and that is usually how the Sunday ends up at one house with forty people in it. There will be cards. There will be someone flying a kite badly at a park that is not designed for it. There will be a queue at the halal butcher two weeks earlier that tells you Dashain is close more reliably than any calendar.
Where to eat khasi ko masu if you are not cooking
Plenty of years you do not cook. The freezer plan fell through, or it is a Wednesday and you have work. Goat curry is on menus in every state and territory, and these are good places to start, one for each:
Khaja
4.9(122)
The Summit - Indian Nepalese Restaurant
4.8(343)
8848 Momo House Forest Lake
4.8(856)
Rolling Flavors
4.8(370)
Everest Tea House
4.7(137)
Lakeside Gurkhas
4.5(1953)
Everest Eatery - Indian & Nepalese Cuisine
4.5(346)
Yogi's Way
4.4(414)If you are feeding a crowd rather than a table, ring a caterer instead, and ring early. Prisha Catering and Events in Yennora, Everest Function Centre in Rockdale and Anu Kitchen in Campsie all do Nepali catering, and the two weekends around 18 and 24 October are the ones everyone wants. Two to four weeks of notice is normal, more if you want goat rather than chicken.
One honest note on halal. Most Nepali kitchens here buy from halal butchers because that is who sells goat, but almost none of them advertise it and we do not list it as a fact we can stand behind. Ring and ask the kitchen directly. They will tell you straight.
For the rest of the spread, a Newari kitchen will cover bara, choila and samay baji, a sekuwa house handles the grill, and if the kids only want momo, that is a Dashain tradition too now. Open the map and find what is closest to you.
Frequently asked
When is Dashain in 2026?
Dashain runs from Sunday 11 October 2026 (Ghatasthapana) to Sunday 25 October (Kojagrat Purnima). Bijaya Dashami, the main tika day, is Wednesday 21 October 2026.
What food do Nepalis eat for Dashain?
Khasi ko masu (bone-in goat curry) with rice and aloo ko achar is the centrepiece, alongside sel roti, kheer, sekuwa off the grill and khasi ko bhutan, the fried goat offal. Newar families add bara, choila and a samay baji spread.
What is khasi ko masu?
Goat curry cooked on the bone in mustard oil with ginger, garlic, turmeric, cumin and onion, simmered long enough that the gravy thickens from the bones. It is the dish Dashain is built around, and it is different from khasi ko bhutan, which is fried goat offal.
Where can I order a Dashain feast in Australia?
Several Nepali kitchens cater, including Prisha Catering and Events in Yennora, Everest Function Centre in Rockdale and Anu Kitchen in Campsie. Book two to four weeks ahead, and expect the weekends of 18 and 24 October 2026 to go first.
Is Nepali goat curry halal?
It depends on the kitchen. Most source goat from halal butchers, but very few advertise certification, so ring and ask before you order.
Dashain is fifteen days long and only one of them is about the tika. The rest is goat, rice, cards and a house that never quite empties. Get your order in early, and eat like the fridge is about to be full.